Suicide bombers strike Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – A suspected Taliban militant detonated explosives strapped to himself, killing a former militia commander and two others Monday in a southern Afghan city, while a second suicide bomber was thwarted when he blew himself up as he fled police.

Firefights in the country’s east, meanwhile, killed a U.S. soldier and wounded three others, while an American special forces chopper was destroyed by fire as it made a hard landing during an offensive. All aboard escaped unhurt.

The violence came amid a reinvigorated insurgency by Taliban-led rebels that has killed more than 1,300 people in the past half year and highlighted the threat still facing Afghanistan as it slowly moves toward democracy.

The two suicide bombings brought the number of such assaults in the past two weeks to five – four of them in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. Suicide attacks have been far less frequent here than in Iraq, although Afghan officials have warned of plots to mimic the tactics of militants in the Mideast.

The first suicide bomber Monday struck outside the Kandahar home of Agha Shah, a former militia commander who was allied with the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance, which swept the Taliban from power in late 2001, Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said.

The blast killed Shah, a supporter of President Hamid Karzai, as well as two civilian passers-by and wounded eight people, the governor said.

Khalid said the bomber’s head had been recovered and he appeared to be an Arab and was believed to be a Taliban member.

The second bombing came two hours later. Police received an intelligence report that an attacker was approaching a U.S. military base in the city. Afghan officers rushed to the area, prompting the assailant to run away before he detonated the explosives strapped to his body, Khalid said.

No one besides the bomber was hurt in the blast about a half mile from the U.S. base.