Four U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan bombing

KABUL, Afghanistan – A roadside bomb killed four U.S. troops passing by in an armored vehicle in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, the deadliest attack on coalition forces in a month.

In Kabul, a suicide bombing Sunday killed two people and narrowly missed the chief of Afghanistan’s upper house of parliament, and he accused Pakistani intelligence of trying to assassinate him.

The two bombings were the latest in a series of militant attacks that appear to be gathering intensity four years after the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime by a U.S.-led invasion.

The four American troops died while patrolling in the Pech Valley in Kunar province, military spokesman Col. Jim Yonts said. Kunar Gov. Asadullah Wafa said the roadside blast went off as a convoy of six American vehicles passed.

Yonts said attacks would not deter the U.S.-led coalition from their mission of defeating Taliban and al-Qaida militants and establishing lasting security.

Sunday’s bombing raised the death toll of U.S. military personnel in the region to 220 since a U.S.-led offensive toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001. It was the deadliest attack since Feb. 13, when a roadside bomb killed four American troops in central Uruzgan province.

Also Sunday, a car bombing in the capital targeted Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, a Muslim cleric who briefly served as president in 1992. He now heads the upper house of parliament and leads a commission encouraging Taliban fighters to reconcile with the government.

Mujaddedi escaped with burns to his hands and face but two bystanders, a girl on her way to school and a man on a motorbike, were killed. Two attackers who drove the explosives-laden station wagon into the convoy also died.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombing as “an attack on the voice of Afghanistan and clerics of Afghanistan.” He did not blame anyone outright but said he had received information two months ago of a plot to “attack important personalities in Afghanistan.”

Mujaddedi directly accused Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency for the bombing. He offered no proof. “We have got information that ISI of Pakistan has launched a plan to kill me,” he said.

Islamabad dismissed Mujaddedi’s charge.

“Pakistan rejects the baseless allegations,” Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.

The accusation likely will aggravate deteriorating relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, two key allies in the U.S.-led fight against terrorism.

Ties have been badly strained since Kabul revealed it had shared intelligence with Islamabad that Taliban leader Mullah Omar and top associates were hiding in Pakistan, and terrorist training camps on Pakistani soil were churning out suicide attackers.

Pakistan dismissed the intelligence as outdated and strongly criticized Afghanistan for publicizing it.