May 19, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 13, 1429

KANDAHAR: A Taliban suicide bomber killed four Afghans on Sunday in the heart of a town taken from rebels five months ago and a foreign soldier in a US-led force died in another blast, officials said.

The soldier, whose nationality was not released, was killed with an Afghan “non-combatant” in the blast in the southern province of Zabul, the coalition said in a statement that gave no further details.

Another soldier was seriously injured in the attack in which a bomb blew up a military vehicle, it said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but the extremist Taliban militia — in government until 2001 — has carried out a series of similar attacks.

The insurgent group confirmed it was behind a suicide bombing that tore through a bazaar in the town of Musa Qala.

The attacker ran at a police vehicle patrolling the town and exploded on impact, Helmand province police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal said.

Four civilians were killed and three wounded, two of them seriously, Andiwal said. Five policemen were hurt.

A day earlier a Nato helicopter carrying the Helmand governor, Gulab Mangal, came under fire from Taliban as it was about to land in Musa Qala.—AFP