KABUL, Sept 7: A car exploded in a southern Afghan town on Wednesday, killing its three occupants and a passerby, in what appeared to be a bungled suicide attack, a provincial official said.

The car was passing a policeman’s house in the town of Girishk when it exploded but that was not believed to have been the target, said Mohammed Wali Alizai, spokesman for the Helmand provincial governor.

“It seems their aim was to carry out a suicide attack on the Americans but it went off early,” Alizai said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility. Abdul Latif Hakimi, a spokesman for the militants, said a Taliban suicide bomber set off the blast and eight Americans had been killed.

In a separate incident, two Taliban fighters and four Afghan government soldiers were killed in a clash in Ghazni province to the southwest of the capital on Tuesday night, a provincial official said.—Reuters