KABUL: A Taliban suicide bomber dressed in a woman’s burqa who rammed his motorcycle into a Nato convoy killed a soldier from the country of Georgia and two Afghan civilians, an Afghan official and the US military said on Friday.

The attack took place on Thursday evening and hit the Nato patrol near the town of Qarabagh, barely 30 kilometres north of Kabul, the Afghan capital.

It was the second suicide bombing in as many days that targeted Nato. On Wednesday, a suicide attacker hit a convoy on the edge of the southern city of Kandahar, killing two US soldiers and wounding another four. Both attacks were claimed by the Taliban.

According to the US military, three other Georgian soldiers were wounded in Thursday’s bombing, as well as two US service members and an Afghan interpreter. The military said the wounded are in stable condition receiving treatment at the US military hospital at Bagram Air Base, also north of Kabul.

The district governor in Qarabagh, Abdul Sami Sharifi, said the attacker concealed his explosives beneath the all-enveloping women’s garment known as burqa. He rammed his motorcycle into the Nato patrol, setting off his explosives, Sharifi said.

In a statement, US Gen. John Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, praised the contribution of the nearly 900 Georgian military personnel serving in Afghanistan.

“The commitment of Georgia as our largest non-Nato contributor is vital to our mission and we are honoured to stand beside them under these difficult circumstances,” Nicholson said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Friday that one of its fighters from Takhar province carried out the attack at 8pm in Qarabagh. He claimed 11 Americans were killed, but the insurgents routinely exaggerate their claims.

Meanwhile, in southern Helmand province, the Taliban stormed a market on Friday in the Gareshk district and fired at a nearby police station, according to district police chief Ismail Khan Khopalwaq.

The market was closed because of the Muslim weekend and no casualties were reported in the attack.

On Thursday, a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a police outpost in Gareshk, killing two policemen and wounding another two.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2017