Suicide bomber kills 12 in N. Afghanistan

Afghanistan: A suicide bomber attacked foreign military forces in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people including three international troops, officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on foreign troops filming interviews in a park in Maymana, the capital of Faryab province, as NATO's fatalities in the decade-long conflict passed the 100 mark for 2012.

NATO's US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said only that three service members died after an explosion in northern Afghanistan, without giving nationalities. Western sources said that it was the same incident.

Video footage from the scene showed a number of foreign troops lying immobile on the ground in the aftermath of the blast, while blood-soaked civilian and military victims writhed in pain from savage wounds including severed limbs.

"A suicide bomber targeted a group of foreign friends," Faryab governor Abdul Haq Shafaq told AFP.

"They were military. There are casualties, dead and wounded." AFP