Blast hits US military convoy in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Monday (Reuters) A bomb blast hit a U.S. military convoy outside the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Monday. The U.S. military said at least four U.S. soldiers were wounded, while police said at least five Americans died.

"The initial report we have indicates an improvised explosive device hit a coalition convoy in Kandahar today," said U.S. military spokeswoman Lieutenant Cindy Moore. "Four U.S. soldiers were hurt and evacuated for treatment."

Earlier, a senior Afghan police officer in Kandahar said at least five U.S. troops were killed in the blast which came from a taxi as a U.S. military convoy was passing along a main road to the west of the city.

The officer, who did not want to be identified, said it appeared to a suicide attack in which the driver of the taxi died. "This was a suicide attack," he said. "The person in the car that carried out the act has been torn into pieces. The car approached the American convoy consisting of some 20 vehicles.

"The latest report I have is that five people in the vehicle that was hit by the suicide car have been killed."

A Reuters Television News cameraman near the scene saw a U.S. helicopter evacuating casualties from the site of the blast, in an area called Mirwais Mina, some 10 km (six miles) from Kandahar.

The attack comes amid a rise of Taliban-linked violence in southern and eastern Afghanistan since March in which 13 U.S. soldiers had been killed before Monday's attack.

If the deaths are confirmed, it would be the worst attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan for many months. Kandahar, a key bastion of the Taliban during their five years in power before being overthrown by U.S.-led forces in late 2001, was the scene of a suicide bomb attack on a mosque on June 1 that killed at least 20 people.About 150 insurgents have been killed in violence this year, according to U.S and Afghan government figures.

Dozens of government security men have also died in the fighting. The United States commands an 18,300-strong international force in Afghanistan, most of whom are American, fighting Taliban and al Qaeda militants and hunting their leaders, including Osama bin Laden.

U.S.-led troops toppled the hardline Taliban government in late 2001 after it refused to hand over bin Laden, the architect of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.