AFGHANISTAN: A suicide bomber struck outside a government building in Afghanistan yesterday, killing three civilians and an Afghan soldier, as the US-led coalition pushed on with an offensive in the volatile south.
The attacker blew himself up in front of the provincial government office in the southeast town of Gardez, wounding dozens, a local government official said.
Foreign troops are engaged in one of the biggest offensives against militants since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, in the south where Nato is due to take over from the coalition force at the end of the month. British and Afghan forces came under heavy fire in Nazad town in Helmand province yesterday.
In two raids late on Saturday close to Sangin district of Helmand province, coalition troops killed 35 Taliban guerrillas.
Three Afghan soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb south of Herat yesterday.