Roadside bomb in Afghanistan: 3 policemen killed, 2 wounded

A roadside bomb exploded near a convoy of Afghan police in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, killing three officers and wounding two others, a senior police official said. No one claimed responsibility for the attack in Khost province, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of Kabul, but the provincial police chief, Mohammed Ayub, blamed Taliban, although he offered no evidence.

Photo: Roadside bomb in Afghanistan: 3 policemen killed, 2 wounded

"It is the work of the Taliban," he said, adding the dead and injured had been transported to a hospital. The attack came hours after a Taliban suicide car bomber rammed a British military convoy in southern Afghanistan , wounding three soldiers and one Afghan national, a coalition spokesman said.

A man driving a station wagon rigged to explode struck the convoy at about 10:30 a.m. in the Helmand provincial capital of Lashkar Gar, said provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Rahman Saber. British troops immediately cordoned off the attack scene near the so-called British-run provincial reconstruction team base in Lashkar Gah, Saber said.

Three coalition soldiers and an Afghan national were wounded in the suicide attack carried out by a Taliban militant, coalition spokesman in Kandahar , Canadian Maj. Quentin Innis, said. Innis declined to provide the nationalities of the soldiers, but the British Ministry of Defense said two soldiers suffered minor wounds in an incident in Lashkar Gar.

Taliban militants have increased suicide attacks against coalition forces, particularly in southern Afghanistan , in recent months. The change in tactics is of concern to the British military as more than 3,000 British troops take control of the area as part of a NATO mission.

Helmand is also Afghanistan 's main opium poppy-growing region and fears of widespread violence have risen since an aggressive poppy eradication campaign started in recent weeks. Rugged mountains in the province are popular hiding places for Taliban rebels, many of whom are believed to slip back and forth across the province's largely unguarded border with Pakistan , reports the AP.

N.U.