Seven injured after suicide bomber attacks NATO convoy in Afghanistan

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle attacked a NATO convoy in Afghanistan’s southern province of Kandahar on Friday, wounding seven people including four soldiers, an official has revealed.       

“A suicide attacker rammed his explosives-laden motorcycle into a NATO convoy in Dand district injuring four foreign soldiers, one policeman, one translator and one civilian,” the Daily Times quoted provincial governor Toryalai Weesa, as saying.

A spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed the attack, but did not give details of any wounded soldiers, saying only that none had been killed.   

The attack bore the hallmarks of Taliban insurgents, who on Monday targeted NATO troops in a suicide car bombing at an airport in eastern Afghanistan, killing nine people but no foreign soldiers.

The Taliban said that the attack was in revenge of burning of the holy Quran at a US military base at Bagram north of Kabul, an incident that ignited days of violent anti-US protests and led to an apology by US President Barack Obama.

The only NATO soldiers reported killed in Afghanistan in the last 10 days since the demonstrations erupted have died at the hands of Afghan colleagues.

Two Americans were killed at a military outpost in Kandahar on Thursday, adding the total number of Americans killed by Afghan associates to six since the outbreak of the protests.  

NATO withdrew all its advisers from Afghan government ministries after two American officers were shot dead inside the interior ministry last Saturday, apparently by an Afghan colleague.

Of the 60 NATO troops killed so far this year, almost one in five have died at the hands of Afghan colleagues, including four French and an Albanian, as well as the six Americans.