Suicide bomb wounds foreign soldier in Afghanistan

A suicide bomber targeted a foreign military convoy in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, slightly wounding one soldier, said a spokesman for NATO-led forces.The attack came a day after a suicide bomb killed at least 11 people on a police bus in the capital Kabul, part of a Taliban offensive coinciding with the holy month of Ramadan. Another 30 people were killed in a similar attack in Kabul on Saturday.

The number of Taliban attacks has risen this year as the insurgents switch tactics from the conventional battles of last year to suicide and roadside bombs.

Wednesday’s attack came in the province of Uruzgan where Dutch troops are in command of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Separately, Taliban insurgents attacked and briefly took over a district centre in the neighboring province of Ghazni on Tuesday, a provincial official said.

“The Taliban attacked Ajristan district of Ghazni province … overnight, killing two Afghan policemen and wounded one other,” said provincial police chief Ali Shah Ahmadzai. “The rest of the district personnel fled to a nearby village.”

“Police reinforcements, backed by Afghan army and foreign forces were sent to the remote district to deal with the Taliban rebels,” Ahmadzai said.

Taliban insurgents have overrun a number of remote districts a number of times, but usually flee the area before the Afghan army backed by the international forces arrive at the scene.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said insurgents had the control of the district till Wednesday morning.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan in the past 19 months, the bloodiest period since the Taliban were toppled by U.S.-led and Afghan forces in 2001.