In brief: Two U.S. troops killed in bombing

Kabul, Afghanistan – Two U.S. service members were killed in a roadside bombing in restive southern Afghanistan, where thousands of American troops have been deployed to wrest back control of insurgent strongholds.

Also in the south, gunmen kidnapped five Health Ministry employees in volatile Kandahar province while insurgents killed a district official elsewhere, reportedly on the orders of the Taliban supreme leader, officials said Thursday.

Insurgent bombings, gunbattles, assassinations and abductions have skyrocketed this year. The circumstances surrounding the deaths of the two American troops were unclear as NATO released no more details.

Mosque attack

leaves 15 dead

Tehran, Iran – Explosions at a mosque in the southeastern Iranian provincial capital of Zahedan on Thursday killed at least 15 people and injured more, Iranian news agencies reported.

The Fars news agency quoted Interior Ministry official Ali Abdollahi as saying the attack was carried out by one or more suicide bomber and said at least 22 people were also injured.

Zahedan, capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province, is at the center of an ongoing conflict between government and the militant group Jundollah, which draws support from the ethnic Baluch minority straddling Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.