A suicide attack killed two Afghan policemen and wounded four other persons including a civilian in southern Afghanistan, while a NATO soldier was killed in a roadside blast in the same region, officials said on Friday, according to dpa. The suicide bomber, who was riding on a bike, detonated himself near a group of policemen and civilians who had gathered in Arghandab district of southern Kandahar province to celebrate the Afghan New Year, said police official Amanullah Khan. Another three policemen and a civilian were wounded in the blast that happened near a shrine in the district, some 10 kilometres from the Kandahar city on Friday afternoon, Khan said. Meanwhile, a roadside bomb blast killed a NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldier in southern region, the alliance said in a statement. The soldier, who was wounded during a patrol, succumbed to his injuries on Friday, ISAF statement said, but did not provide more detail regarding the nationality of the deceased soldier, not did it say where exactly in the southern region the incident took place. In a separate incident, a bomb hidden inside a rubbish bin near a famous shrine in the northern province of Balkh, wounded four civilians, provincial police chief, Abdul Raouf said. The blast happened in the relatively peaceful city of Mazar-e-Sharif, the provincial capital of the province, during a traditional festival. Every year hundreds of thousands of Afghan people gather in Mazar-e-Sharif city from around the country to celebrate the New Year. Suicide and roadside attacks have become common tactics for the Taliban-led insurgents, whose government was toppled in a US-led invasion in late 2001, after the militants lost thousands of their fighters in conventional war, according to Afghan and international military officials. Afghanistan witnessed more than 140 suicide attacks in 2007, which marked the bloodiest year since the Taliban regime's ousting.
