Suicide Bomber Kills 5 in Southern Afghanistan
By VOA News
09 April 2009
Afghan officials say a suicide bomber has killed five people during an attack on a counter-narcotics police convoy in southern Afghanistan.
A provincial official says two police officers and three civilians were killed Thursday when the bomber struck the convoy in the town of Lashkar Gah in Helmand province. Authorities blamed Taliban militants, who use the region's illegal drug trade to fund their insurgency.
In a separate development, the U.S. military says it is investigating Afghan allegations that U.S. and Afghan troops killed at least four civilians, including a woman and a baby, during a raid in the eastern province of Khost.
The U.S.-led coalition earlier had said four militants were killed in the raid late Wednesday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly said civilian deaths are raising tensions between Washington and Kabul, as well as undermining the Afghan people's support for the presence of international troops.
According to the United Nations, more than 2,000 civilians were killed last year in Afghanistan. It says most deaths were caused by insurgent violence, but nearly 40 percent were attributed to U.S., NATO and Afghan military operations.
In another incident, coalition forces say they killed six militants in an operation in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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