Suicide bombers hit foreign troops in Afghanistan
Source: Reuters
(Adds nationality of foreign soldier killed by suicide bomb) By Yousuf Azimy KABUL, June 15 (Reuters) - Suicide bombers attacked foreign troops in central and southern Afghanistan on Friday, killing five children and a Dutch soldier in a day of renewed bloodshed. Another foreign soldier, belonging to a U.S.-led coalition force, also died in combat in eastern Paktika province on Friday as violence flared in areas where Taliban guerrillas were waging an insurgency against the government and its foreign allies. In the first attack, a suicide bomber rammed his car into a convoy of NATO troops in Tirin Kot, capital of the central province of Uruzgan, killing five Afghan children playing nearby, said a provincial government official, Mohammad Nabi. Four adult civilians were also killed and seven wounded, local police chief Mohammad Qasim added. The Dutch Defence Ministry said the attack killed a 20-year-old from the Dutch Army's 42nd Battalion and wounded three other Dutch troops. The Netherlands has about 1,700 troops in Uruzgan as part of a NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). "This is another example of how the tactics of the enemies of peace and stability are tearing apart the lives of Afghans and preventing the international community from bringing reconstruction and development in areas that desperately need our assistance," ISAF spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Maria Carl said. A second suicide bomber attacked a foreign troop convoy in the southern Kandahar city, wounding at least five civilians, a police official said. A man with explosives strapped to his body approached the convoy and blew himself up, an eyewitness added. ISAF and U.S.-led coalition forces later said their troops had not been involved in the Kandahar incident. ISAF referred inquiries to Afghanistan's Defence Ministry, but a ministry spokesman was not immediately available for comment. A U.S. military spokesman said the soldier killed in Paktika province had died from wounds sustained in combat. He declined to give any details or the name or nationality of the soldier. Also on Friday, a Dutch aid group said two of its Afghan staff, a doctor and a driver, had been kidnapped for a $100,000 ransom in eastern Nangarhar province while they were returning from a vaccination field trip on Wednesday. The kidnappers have threatened to behead the two men, said Geert Leerink, Asia operations director for HealthNet TPO, which is providing health care across Afghanistan. "It's not clear who is the (kidnapping) group, if it is Taliban or a local tribal group," Leerink said. "Community leaders of the area are trying to solve the problem because they know the group." (Additional reporting by Mark Bendeich in Kabul and Reed Stevenson in Amsterdam)
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