A suicide bomber on a bicycle killed four Canadian NATO soldiers in Afghanistan today as they were trying to reassure villagers about safety, while 15 Afghans were killed in two other blasts.
The Taliban, who have unleashed a wave of attacks on government and foreign troops this year, claimed responsibility for the attack on the Canadians in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province a day after NATO declared the area free of Taliban.
Later, a blast killed 11 people including four policemen outside a mosque in the generally peaceful western city of Herat, the province's governor said. Police said the blast was caused by a suicide bomber on a motorcyle and the province's deputy police chief was among 18 wounded.
A suicide car-bomber killed four policemen and wounded 10 passers-by in the capital, Kabul, the Interior Ministry said.
The violence is bound to increase apprehension about NATO's biggest ground offensive as alliance commanders press member states for 2,500 extra troops.
Canadian Brigadier-General David Fraser, who commands a multi-national brigade in the south, said the Canadians were trying to reassure villagers after weeks of fighting in their area.
"The soldiers were conducting a patrol in the area to provide security ... just trying to reassure the people ... that there was security out there and to reassure the people that they could come back," Brig-Gen Fraser said.
Canadian, British and Dutch soldiers are leading a NATO push into the south where they have come up against a much more aggressive Taliban than expected.
The violence, the most intense since the Taliban were ousted five years ago, has raised concern about the prospects for a country that had been seen as a success in the US-led war on terrorism. Washington targeted the country as a haven for the al Qaeda group that launched 9/11 attacks on the United States.
NATO said 27 civilians were wounded and police said most of them were children. Brig-Gen Fraser said civilians, including two children, as well as other Canadian soldiers were wounded.