Bomber hits US convoy, kills 19

A day after a fierce suicide bombing in southern Afghanistan, insurgents struck on Thursday in the east of the country when an American military convoy was attacked in a crowded market, killing one soldier and 18 civilians, according to United States military and Afghan police officials.

A day after a fierce suicide bombing in southern Afghanistan, insurgents struck on Thursday in the east of the country when an American military convoy was attacked in a crowded market, killing one soldier and 18 civilians, according to United States military and Afghan police officials.

One of the dead was a 12-year-old boy, who died when a suicide car bomber in a Toyota Corolla approached an American military convoy and then swerved into a weekly market at around 8 am, according to US and Afghan accounts. Dr Ajmal Pardes, director of public health in the area, said 74 people were injured.

The strike was in the Bati Kot district of eastern Afghanistan8217;s Nangarhar Province.

An Associated Press photographer said that an American military vehicle, two civilian vehicles and two rickshaws were destroyed.

US Navy commander Jeff Bender, an American military spokesman in Kabul, said the civilian death count, initially put at 10, had risen to 18.

On Wednesday, a tanker truck packed with explosives detonated outside the provincial council office in Kandahar, Afghanistan8217;s largest southern city, killing the driver and at least six other people and wounding more than 40 others.

The blast shook the entire city, caused at least five houses to fall and left a crater near the council building, which housed an office of a national security service.

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8220;The enemies of Afghanistan and peace once again put us in mourning,8221; Gen Rahmatullah Roufi, the provincial governor, told reporters. He announced a 8220;purification8221; operation to arrest insurgents in and near the city.

In a separate incident reported on Thursday, two soldiers from the American-led NATO alliance were killed in an explosion in the south of the country in an explosion on Wednesday, the alliance said, but did not specify the soldiers8217; nationality.

The Defence Ministry in London later identified the two soldiers as members of Britain8217;s Royal Marines who were taking part in a joint patrol with Afghan soldiers in the Garmsir district of Southern Helmand Province.

The American contingent is the largest foreign force in Afghanistan but Britain has about 8,000 troops there. A survey broadcast on Thursday by the BBC said more than two-thirds of those questioned believed Britain should withdraw its soldiers over the next year while less than a quarter favored their continued deployment.

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This year has been the bloodiest since the American-led invasion of late 2001 that toppled the Taliban regime, whose supporters have revived their campaign to drive out foreign forces.

The latest American fatalities brought to around 148 the number of American military deaths so far this year, compared to 111 in the whole of 2001, the Associated Press reported. Additionally, around 110 soldiers from other coalition forces have died this year.

More than 5,400 people, including almost 1,000 civilians, have died in violence related to the insurgency this year, the news agency said, citing figures provided by Afghan and international officials.