Taliban hand suspected in Helmand suicide attack

Kandahar: A suicide attack on a military convoy killed a US-led soldier and six Afghans in southern Afghanistan on Friday, a day after a huge operation to drive Taliban rebels from a key stronghold.

The convoy was driving through a crowded market in the troubled province of Helmand when it was hit by small-arms fire, officials said. Soon after, an insurgent detonated explosives strapped to his body.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Taliban had vowed to launch suicide attacks to avenge the offensive by Nato and Afghan troops near Kandahar province.

Helmand police chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal said five Afghan civilians were killed, including two children, and four were injured. He earlier gave a toll of 10 civilians but said later that he had been "misinformed".

Meanwhile, Nato and Afghan forces yesterday held mopping-up operations in Arghandab, a lush valley 20km to the northwest of Kandahar, hunting Taliban fighters and burying the dead.

The allies had mounted the offensive on Wednesday after the Taliban took control of the Arghandab.

Around 600 militants, including some who had escaped a week ago during a mass jail break from a prison in the city, had taken up positions in a cluster of villages near Kandahar.

French businessman safe

A French businessman who was abducted in southern Afghanistan last month has been released safely with two Afghan colleagues, the French Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

Afghan officials blamed the Taliban for seizing 37-year-old Johan Freckhaus in Ghazni province on May 29, but there was never any claim of responsibility for the abduction.