KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, May 17 (Reuters) - A bicycle bomb killed a child and wounded four people in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar on Saturday, police said.

The bomb was detonated by remote-control as a police convoy passed through the centre of Kandahar city, police official Mohammad Yaqub told Reuters. Three of those wounded were police, Yaqub said.

A NATO spokesman confirmed the attack, saying the child who was killed was nine years old.

Thousands of people have died in violence in Afghanistan in recent years as the Taliban has stepped up attacks despite the presence of more than 55,000 foreign troops led by NATO and the U.S. military and nearly 150,000 Afghan security forces.

Taliban militants often target Afghan and international security forces in an attempt to topple the U.S.-backed Afghan government and drive foreign troops out of the country.

U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban's strict Islamic government after its leadership refused to hand over al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, the architect of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

(Reporting by Ismail Sameem; Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by David Fox)

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