2 police officials killed in Afghan attacks

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Suspected Taliban rebels ambushed government vehicles in eastern and southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing a district chief, a police commander and four others, officials said.

Also, a botched suicide attack on foreign troops killed the bomber and wounded six Afghans.

Thursday's violence came a day after the deadliest fighting in months killed 32 rebels, eight Afghan troops, an American soldier and a Canadian soldier in the southern province of Helmand.

It also followed threats by Taliban militants to step up their fight this year.

Militants firing rockets and rifles killed Dawlat Shah district chief Qadeer Khan and three of his staff as they drove home in eastern Laghman province, deputy provincial Gov. Habib Rasool Memawal said.

He blamed Taliban insurgents for the assault and said security forces had deployed across the area to hunt for the attackers.

The police commander of Musa Qala, a district in Helmand, and his brother were killed when their vehicle was ambushed, said Mullah Amir Akhandzada, Helmand's deputy governor.

The police chief's bodyguards exchanged fire briefly with the militants, who fled, Akhandzada said. It was unclear if any insurgents were wounded.

Akhandzada said the slain commander, who was identified only by his first name of Pacha, was a well-known military leader who fought Russian forces during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

In the neighboring southern province of Kandahar, a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives near a Canadian military convoy Thursday, killing himself and wounding six Afghan passers-by, police and witnesses said. Two children were among the wounded.

Mangled pieces of metal from the assailant's car were strewn around the blast site, which was cordoned off by police and Canadian troops.

The attack is the latest in a string of suicide bombings to hit southern Afghanistan in the past six months, representing a new and disturbing trend four years after the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime.

NATO is doubling its current force of 10,000 troops in Afghanistan to about 21,000 by November. That figure will include 5,000 to 6,000 Americans.