Afghan bombing leaves 10 dead

PanARMENIAN.Net - Eight Afghan security personnel and a foreign soldier were among 10 people killed in a Taliban-style roadside bombing in the southern province of Kandahar, officials said Sunday, March 25, AFP reported.

Provincial government spokesman Zalmai Ayoubi said an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldier, six Afghan policemen, two Afghan army soldiers and a translator working for the foreign forces were killed in the bombing. An ISAF serviceman and another Afghan policeman were injured, Ayoubi added.

Separately, the NATO-led foreign forces said one service member had died "following an improvised explosive device attack in southern Afghanistan yesterday".

Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban and remains a stronghold of the militants who have been fighting the government of President Hamid Karzai and its Western allies since being ousted from power a decade ago.

The attack came after a US soldier went on a rampage elsewhere in Kandahar province earlier this month, killing 17.

The UN Mission in Afghanistan document said that a total of 3,021 civilians died in the Afghan conflict - mostly at the hands of insurgents - in 2011, up eight percent from 2010.

There are currently 130,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan helping Kabul fight the insurgency, but combat forces are due to be withdrawn by the end of 2014 when security responsibility will be handed over to the Afghan government.

More than 2,900 foreign soldiers have been killed in the conflict, according to a tally by the icasualties.org website.