Suicide blast kills Afghan

AFGHANISTAN: One person, thought to be an Afghan interpreter for the US military, was killed and five others were injured Monday in a suicide blast in southern Afghanistan’s biggest city, officials said.

The explosion took place in a customs office in Kandahar, seen as the birthplace of the Taliban, injuring two international troops and three other people, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

The provincial police chief for Kandahar, Khan Mohammad Mujahid, had previously said an interpreter and an unspecified number of US soldiers had died in the attack.

However, ISAF said there were no fatalities among its troops. It announced separately that a coalition soldier had died in a bomb blast in southern Afghanistan Monday without giving further details, in line with its policy.

“A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the customs house in Kandahar city, Kandahar province today,” ISAF said in a statement.

“One person, who was not an ISAF service member, was killed in the explosion. Five people were wounded, two of which were ISAF service members.”

The blast happened a few metres from the main gate of the office as a US military convoy entered the compound, said Colonel Abdul Ghani, the official responsible for security there.

The Taliban claimed that “14 American soldiers including two of their translators” were killed in the “martyrdom-seeking attack”, according to the SITE monitoring group, which quoted a communique posted on a Taliban website. The insurgents are known to regularly exaggerate the casualties from their attacks. Kandahar, Tuesday, AFP