10 killed in roadside blast in Afghanistan

A police truck packed with officers and detainees struck a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan's largest city, killing 10 of those aboard, officials said today.

It was one of four blasts that left at least 24 people dead across the country.

In the Kandahar city blast, police had driven out into a residential neighbourhood of the city to inspect a bomb that had been found there, said Javid Faisal, a spokesman for the provincial government. They detained three suspects and were driving back with them in a police pickup truck when the vehicle struck another explosive buried in the road. Eight police officers and two detainees were killed in the blast.

Meanwhile, Afghan authorities accused Nato of killing three civilian men in a night-time ambush in the eastern Logar province. The coalition disputed the account, saying it had no operations in Logar's Baraki Barak district last night. Nato said there were three dead, but they were insurgents killed by Afghan forces.

Deputy provincial police chief Rais Khan Abdul Rahimzai said all three of the added were civilians. "They were brothers. They had dinner at one of their brother's houses in another part of the district and it was when they were driving back that they were ambushed by the foreign soldiers," Rahimzai said. "It was a misunderstanding in which foreign forces shot and killed three people."

A spokesman for the international force disputed the Afghan version of the incident."This was the ANSF," said Maj. Martyn Crighton, referring to the Afghan National Security Forces. He said they went after three men who had been seen burying a bomb in the ground and "got engaged in a firefight with these guys."

Earlier, 10 policemen were killed when a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up in Kunduz province in the north. Meanwhile, a remote-controlled bomb planted on a bicycle exploded in the eastern city of Ghazni, killing one police officer and a civilian. And officials in Farah province in the west said that two police officers were killed there last night when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb.

AP