At least 12 civilians, including women and children, have been killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan.
Local officials said the improvised bomb struck a passenger vehicle Wednesday in the Tani district of Khost province.
In southern Afghanistan, NATO says one of its soldiers was killed in a roadside bombing Wednesday.
Also in the southern part of the country, officials say a tribal leader was killed Wednesday in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province.
The attacks are the latest sign of deteriorating security in the region. On Tuesday, a suicide bombing near Kandahar city killed at least three people.
Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban and the site of a planned offensive by Afghan and NATO forces to clear the city of Taliban insurgents.
The U.N. announced Monday it was temporarily moving some of its foreign staff from Kandahar to Kabul. It also asked more than 200 Afghan personnel in Kandahar to stay home.
Elsewhere in southern Afghanistan, NATO says a joint Afghan and international patrol confiscated more than 2,000 kilograms of raw opium from a vehicle in the Reg-e Khan Neshin district of Helmand province Wednesday.
The production and trafficking of opium helps fund the Taliban insurgency.
