Roadside blasts kill 13 Afghans, several Taliban killed (2nd Lead)

May 27, 2008, 11:34 GMT

Kabul - Roadside blasts killed at least 13 including nine civilians and four Afghan police forces, while a US-led coalition soldier and several Taliban militants were killed in separate incidents, officials said Tuesday.

A mini-bus carrying passengers was blown up by a roadside bomb in Del Aram district in Farah province on Tuesday morning, Younus Rasouli, deputy provincial governor told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

'Eight people, all of them civilians were killed in this attack,' Rasouli said, adding that police units were deployed to the area to assist with evacuation.

Abdul Mutalib Rad, spokesman for the police forces in western zone, also confirmed the incident and said one civilian was wounded.

Rad blamed Taliban militants for the attack and said the road where the attack took place is often frequented by Afghan and foreign forces in the province.

Four Afghan policemen were killed, when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Charkh district of southern Logar province on Tuesday morning, Gholam Mustafa Muhseni, provincial police chief said.

Mustafa said that a vehicle was completely destroyed in the attack that he blamed on Taliban militants.

The foreign soldier died in south-eastern province of Paktika province, US military said in a statement, but did not identify the nationality of the deceased soldier. Most of the troops serving under coalition forces are US soldiers.

More than 60 international soldiers have been killed this year, while a total of 232 NATO soldiers were killed in Taliban-led violence last year.

US-led coalition forces also said they had killed 'several militants' in Garmsir district of southern Helmand province on Monday.

'During their search, several militants engaged Coalition forces, who responded with small-arms fire, killing the militants,' the US military said in a statement.

An unspecified number of militants were killed and nine detained in another operation by coalition forces on Monday in Zurmat district of south-eastern province of Paktia, a separate US military statement said.

'During the search, Coalition forces were engaged by an unknown number of militants from several buildings and responded with small-arms fire and airstrikes,' the statement said.

The combined forces also seized several grenade launchers, assault rifles, protective vests and ammunition during the operation.

In another incident, one civilian was killed and three others were wounded in a roadside attack in eastern Nangarhar province on Monday, Abdul Ghafoor, spokesman for the provincial police chief said.

He said the civilians were digging the ground on a dirt road in Roghano district when the explosion took place. Ghafoor could not say if it was a freshly planted mine, or left over from three decades of turmoil in the country.

The Taliban, who lost power in a US military invasion in late 2001, have been increasingly relying on the use of roadside and suicide attacks in their war against Afghan and international forces.