A suicide bomber struck near a police convoy in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing five people and wounding 38 in the latest in a growing wave of Iraq-style suicide attacks, while a huge, accidental explosion at a Kabul gunpowder shop cost six lives. The suicide attacker, described as a young man wearing a Muslim prayer cap and a shawl, detonated his explosives as the last in a column of police vehicles passed in front of a bank on a busy shopping street in Khost, a city close to the Pakistani border, The Associated Press quoted officials and witnesses as saying. Four civilians and a policeman were killed, according to Gul Mohammadin Mohammadi, the provincial health chief. Nine of the 38 wounded were policemen, but most were shopkeepers and pedestrians, Mohammadi said. Twelve of those hurt were in critical condition.
