By Zhang Yunlong, Xinhua,
Kabul : Two soldiers serving the NATO-led ISAF force were killed in an explosion during a patrol in eastern Afghan province Khost Wednesday as two blast attacks near the provincial capital killed three including a local senior police officer, the NATO and police said.
Two soldiers of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) died and two soldiers sustained injuries in a blast in Sabari district of Khost, the ISAF said in a statement.
One civilian was also killed, it added, without giving more details or releasing the casualty’s nationality.
The ISAF, deployed in Afghanistan with UN mandate to help with stabilizing security and reconstruction, has a total of 47,000 multi-national troops.
This is the third reported explosion in a day in Khost, which, bordering Pakistan, is a known place for active militancy.
A suicide car blast attack took place near a checkpoint of border police near the provincial capital Khost city on Wednesday afternoon, leaving one child killed and three more civilians injured, provincial police spokesman Wazir Badshah told Xinhua.
Earlier, a roadside bombing on Wednesday morning killed a deputy police administrator and another in the outskirts of Khost city while the officer was driving towards his office.
There has been no responsibility claim for these blasts but such attacks are usually blamed on anti-government insurgents, who had conducted over 140 suicide attacks last year in the war-ravaged Afghanistan.
In a related development, a group of rebels Wednesday raided a police checkpoint in Zirjoz area near Trinkot, the provincial capital of southern province Uruzgan, and the ensuing clash left one insurgent dead and one more wounded, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.