Suicide attack in western Afghanistan kills six

Kabul - Six people including a senior police officer were killed in a suicide attack in a busy provincial market in western Afghanistan on Friday, the governor of the province said. The bomber detonated his explosive-filled vest in a busy market in Zaranj, the provincial capital of the western province of Nimruz, when the deputy commander of the highway police forces was shopping, provincial Governor Gholam Dastigir Azaad. 'The police officer and five civilians were killed in the blast,' Azaad told Deutsch Presse-Agentur dpa, adding that at least ten other civilians were wounded in the attack. Earlier local media, citing governor Azaad, said that more than 10 people were killed and 20 others were wounded in the attack, but the governor said, 'We later found that the initial information was based on incorrect ground reports.' Several shops in the market were also destroyed in the attack, he added. Taliban insurgents took responsibility for the Friday's attack in a statement posted at their website. The attack came a day after a suicide bomber targeted a NATO convoy in Maiwand district of the southern province of Kandahar, killing two US soldiers under NATO command. Afghan local officials said that three civilians were also killed during the Thursday's attack, but NATO said that only one local civilian was killed and 21 others were wounded. Separately, US-led coalition forces killed five suspected militants and detained three others in an operation that targeted a roadside bomb facilitator in Jaldak district of southern Zabul province on Thursday, the US military said in a statement. Taliban militants rely heavily on the use of roadside and suicide attacks as part of their insurgency. The militants carried out around 2,000 roadside bombings in 2008, which was almost double the number of roadside attacks in 2007.