KANDAHAR, March 25: Eight Afghan security personnel and a foreign soldier were among 10 people killed in a roadside bombing in Kandahar province, officials said on Sunday.

“Last night there was an IED attack,” Shah Mohammad, the local administration chief of Arghandab district, said.

Provincial government spokesman Zalmai Ayoubi said a Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) soldier, six Afghan policemen, two Afghan army soldiers and a translator working for the foreign forces were killed in the bombing.

An Isaf serviceman and another Afghan policeman were injured, Mr Ayoubi added.

Separately, the Nato-led foreign forces said one service member died “following an improvised explosive device attack in southern Afghanistan yesterday”.

A spokesman declined to give details or confirm Afghan casualties.

But a western security source confirmed that the Afghan and Isaf reports were referring to the same incident.

In a separate attack in the southwestern province of Farah, six Afghan soldiers were killed on Sunday and another three wounded when their patrol was ambushed in Bala Buluk district, the Afghan defence ministry said in a statement.

The attack came after a US soldier went on a rampage elsewhere in Kandahar province earlier this month.

Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, 38, of the US 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, has been formally accused of 17 premeditated murders — charges that could carry the death penalty. He is also accused of six counts of assault and attempted murder.—AFP