Suicide attack in Afghanistan kills 4

KABUL, Afghanistan --A suicide bomber struck near a police convoy Wednesday in eastern Afghanistan, killing four people and wounding 35, officials said.

The officers were patrolling in the city of Khost when the attacker, who was on foot, detonated his explosives, said deputy provincial police chief Mohammad Zaman. The commander of the patrol unit and three policemen were among the wounded.

Khost provincial health chief Gul Mohammadin Mohammadi said that four civilians were killed and another 35 people wounded, most of them shopkeepers and pedestrians. He said that 12 of the wounded were in critical condition.

Earlier Wednesday, at least six people were killed in a gunpowder explosion in shops selling hunting ammunition, police said. Nine other people were injured by the blast, which left a huge crater.

Police, soldiers and crying relatives used their hands and shovels to dig frantically through the debris for more victims. At least three of the injured were pulled from the rubble.

Deputy city police chief Zulmay Khan said the explosion was caused by gunpowder in the shops selling ammunition for hunting rifles. Police have not said what might have ignited the gunpowder.

Most of the shops were shut at the time of the blast around 6:30 a.m. in a part of the city where many buildings are already ruined from years of conflict.

Khali Abdul Wahid, a community leader in the area, said that there were 400 shops near the blast site, and at least 100 were destroyed or damaged.

Meanwhile, NATO said its forces in Kandahar fired at a truck that came too close to their convoy Wednesday, killing the driver.

Suicide attacks have become a key weapon for Taliban insurgents who made 2006 the bloodiest year in Afghanistan since U.S. forces drove the hard-line militia from power in late 2001. The tactic has also put NATO and U.S. troops on edge, resulting in a string of mistaken shootings.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement that NATO troops had signaled for the driver to stop, and when he failed to heed their warnings they fired at the truck's engine three times, and the driver was killed by a ricochet.

Afghan and Western officials have pleaded with foreign forces to use caution to prevent civilian casualties. NATO and U.S.-led coalition forces have shot at least 10 people who have driven close to their convoys since January, according to an Associated Press tally. The figure includes the latest shooting.

In other violence, suspected Taliban fighters attacked a police checkpoint near Qalat in the southern province of Zabul early Wednesday. The ensuing gunbattle left a policeman wounded, said Zabul highway police commander Ghulam Jailali. Two militants were arrested.

In a similar incident, Kandahar provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai said two police were killed and one wounded in a gunbattle that followed a Taliban attack on a checkpoint Tuesday night on the Spin Boldak-Kandahar highway.

In the relatively peaceful north, an attack on a convoy carrying officials in Faryab province left a district chief and one attacker dead, said Gov. Amer Latif. Another district chief and a policeman were wounded. The motive for the attack was unclear.

------

Associated Press Writers Noor Khan in Kandahar and Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul contributed to this report.