Six killed by suicide bomber

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP): A suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body inside a produce shop in southern Afghanistan on Friday, killing six people, the provincial governor said.

The bomber was apparently targeting a police official who was inside the shop, said Ghulam Dastagir Azad, the governor of Nimroz province.

The explosion in the provincial capital killed the official and five civilians, he said.

Nimroz Police Chief Gen. Jabar Pardeli confirmed the figures.

Four shops were also destroyed in the blast.Separately Friday, three U.S. soldiers were killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, said Col. Greg Julian, a U.S. military spokesman.

The assault followed a coalition strike on a bomb-making network in Zabul on Thursday in which the U.S. military said five militants were killed.

The troops were pursuing a Taliban militant known to have directed roadside bomb attacks along the country’s major highway, the military said in a statement.

During the strike on his compound, they came under fire from those inside. The statement says the militants refused calls to surrender and the coalition forces killed five armed militants and captured three suspects in the ensuing clash.

Two other U.S. soldiers also died in a suicide attack in a busy marketplace in Maywand district of Kandahar province.