An Afghan Cabinet minister has survived an apparent suicide bombing
attack in southern Afghanistan's Nimroz province that killed three
civilians.
Nimroz Governor Ghulam Dastagir Azad said two suicide
bombers on Friday attempted to enter a compound in the provincial
capital Zaranj where the minister of refugees, Karim Brahawi, was
staying.
Officials said police recognized the attackers' hostile
intentions and stopped them from entering the residence. Police shot
one attacker dead. The second attacker detonated his explosives in a
crowd of civilians, killing three and wounding three others.
The minister was unharmed.
In
northern Afghanistan, a Norwegian intelligence officer was killed
Friday by a roadside bomb near the city of Mayama. He was flown to a
German field hospital in Mazar-i-Sharif, where he died.
A
separate report said two NATO soldiers were wounded in a suicide car
bomb attack also near Mazar-i-Sharif. It was not immediately clear if
the reports referred to the same incident.
In other news, the
U.S. military said it killed six militants during an overnight raid
northwest of Kandahar city in Maywand district in southern Afghanistan.
On Thursday, NATO forces said one of their troops was killed in a bomb blast. No further details were released.
A
top U.S. military official, Admiral Mike Mullen, has said violence is
expected to rise in Afghanistan in coming months as the United States
increases its troop presence.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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