Suicide car bomb kills 8 in Afghanistan

Kandahar: A suicide car bomb attack on a Nato convoy on Thursday killed eight Afghan civilians in the city of Kandahar, police said.

“It was a suicide car attack on Nato. It killed eight civilians but caused no casualties among Nato because the convoy had passed when it happened,'' Kandahar police chief Sayed Aqa Saqib told Reuters.

Twenty people, including two policemen, were wounded, he said.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Taleban had vowed to step up their war to expel foreign troops and bring down the Western-backed government.

Intermittent fighting has been picking up recently after a winter lull.

Despite the presence of about 60,000 foreign soldiers led by Nato and the US military, as well as some 140,000 Afghan troops, Taleban militants have made a comeback in the past two years and more than 11,000 people have been killed in violence.