Five Afghan civilians, 2 NATO soldiers killed in violence (Roundup)

May 20, 2008, 14:41 GMT

Kabul - Five Afghan civilians were killed in a roadside attack, while two NATO soldiers were killed in separate attacks in southern Afghanistan, where a police official was also killed by unknown gunmen, officials said Tuesday.

Five members of the same family were killed in a roadside mine blast in south-western province of Nimruz on Tuesday, Ghulam Dastagir Azaad, provincial governor said.

The nomadic family was transporting sheep in a trailer when the vehicle struck a newly-planted mine, Azaad said, adding that livestock was also killed in the attack.

He held Taliban insurgents responsible for the attack. As part of a campaign against Afghan and international forces, Taliban militants have recently relied heavily on use of roadside bombs and suicide attacks.

Meanwhile, a soldier serving in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed in a firefight on Monday with insurgents while another ISAF soldier was killed by a roadside bomb, the alliance said in a statement.

The statement did not disclose the nationalities of the soldiers nor the location of the incidents. However, Britain's Defence Ministry said one of its soldiers died Monday in an explosion while on foot patrol in the Musa Qaleh area of Helmand province

The majority of ISAF forces in southern Afghanistan are Canadian, British, Dutch and US troops.

In southern Logar province, Shah Mohammad, security chief of the province's Charkh district, was killed by unknown gunmen Tuesday morning, said Gholum Mustafa, provincial police chief.

Two men have been detained for questioning in connection with the killing, he said.

In a separate development, US-led coalition forces arrested a suspected Taliban leader and two of his associates Monday in the south-eastern province of Khost, the US military said in a statement.

The targeted leader, who is a member of the Haqqani group, an associate group of the Taliban, was involved in roadside attacks in the region, the statement charged, adding that 'he is also wanted for the murder of several family members of an Afghan National Security Force commander in the Khost area.'

Taliban-led violence is on the rise in Afghanistan despite the presence of about 70,000 international forces in the country.

The Taliban regime was ousted in a US-led invasion in late 2001 for harbouring the al-Qaeda terrorist network after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States.