Four soldiers - two Afghan troops and two Canadians serving under NATO command - were wounded in a suicide attack in southern Kandahar province, officials said Friday, according to dpa. The incident took place in the village of Nalgam in the Zirai district of southern Kandahar province on Friday morning, district police chief Bismillah Khan said. According to Khan, the suicide bomber died in the attack while the condition of the wounded soldiers was stable. Local officials said the wounded troops were taken to Kandahar Airbase for medical care. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had no immediate comment about the incident. Taliban militants Friday claimed their forces were engaged in heavy fighting in the Ghorak district of Kandahar, but Afghan security officials said the fighting was brief and the district was firmly under the control of the Afghan forces. Sayed Aqa Sabib, the police chief of Kandahar province, said insurgents attacked Ghorak district headquarters Thursday night but fled after meeting resistance. But Taliban insurgents, in a Pashto-language statement posted on their official website, said fighting continued Friday for control of Ghorak district headquarters. "As a result of heavy exchange of fire, many Afghan forces were killed," the militants' statement claimed. Sayed Aqa Sabib rejected the Taliban claim. In a separate incident, an Afghan soldier was killed in a landmine explosion early Friday in the Zerai district of Kandahar. Afghan officials said the soldier was on routine patrol in the district when the landmine exploded. Meanwhile in neighbouring Zabul province, fighting erupted between Afghan forces and Taliban militants Thursday night, officials said. Shinkay district chief Barat Khan said the militants attacked the district Thursday night. An hour-long firefight left five Taliban dead and six others wounded. "There were no police or civilian casualties during clash," the district chief said. US-led coalition forces Friday said at least eight militants were detained during an Afghan National Security and US-led coalition forces' joint operation in the eastern Afghan province of Paktia. The arrests came Thursday after the combined force searched several compounds in Zadran district, aiming to target a Taliban militant suspected of facilitating improvised explosive device (IED) attacks and fighters in the area, it added. "IED components were discovered on the compounds and removed to prevent possible future use," the statement said. In another development, Afghan security forces recovered and defused a roadside explosive device in Paghman district near Kabul on Thursday night. Abdul Razaq, police chief of Paghman district, said the explosive device was planted between the road near the district market and the Kobaki area where Afghan and foreign forces sometimes patrol.
