Eight coalition troops killed in Afghanistan

Kabul, Afghanistan: Roadside bombs killed eight members of the international force in Afghanistan - including seven US troops - raising to more than a dozen the number who have died in the previous three days, NATO said on Tuesday.

The spike in deaths in the three days through Monday came as President Hamid Karzai again publicly raised doubts about the US strategy in the war, saying success cannot be achieved until more Afghans are in the front lines and insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan are shut down.

Nato gave no details of the Monday blasts except that they occurred in the south, the main theater of the conflict, and that five were killed in a single blast. The nationality of the eighth casualty, announced early Tuesday, was not given.

Witnesses said the five died when a bomb struck a Humvee on a main road on the outskirts of Kandahar, the focus of a continuing military campaign to secure the city that the Taliban used as their headquarters during their years in power. The attackers apparently targeted the Humvee because it was not as heavily armored as other vehicles in the convoy.

Later Monday, a pair of rockets were fired at the Kandahar offices of the UN mission in Afghanistan. One fell short and slightly wounded a guard. The other overshot the compound and exploded in an empty field, police said.