Kandahar, Aug 19 (DPA) Four Afghan security guards were killed in a suicide attack in southern Afghanistan, while a NATO soldier was killed in a separate incident in the same region, officials said Sunday.
A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden motorbike near a road-construction convoy in Lashkargah, the capital of southern Helmand province Saturday night, killing himself and four Afghan security guards, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hassan Andiwal.
He said three other guards were wounded in the third such attack in the past three days in the region. The guards were providing security for an Afghan road construction company building the Kandahar-Helmand highway.
In another suicide attack Saturday against a US private security firm in neighbouring Kandahar province, 15 people including three Afghan security guards were killed and 25 were wounded.
In a similar attack Friday, a district chief and his three children were killed when a bomber detonated himself near his house in Kandahar city.
Meanwhile, one soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed Sunday while performing convoy escort duties in southern Afghanistan, ISAF said in statement.
The statement did not identify the nationality of the deceased soldier nor did it say how and where the incident took place.
The majority of the forces in southern region are Dutch, Canadian, British and US soldiers.
Officials estimate that about 3,900 people, mostly insurgents, have been killed in the violence in Afghanistan this year. Hundreds of Afghan and international security personnel have also lost their lives.