Seven dead in Afghanistan bombing

A suicide bomber killed seven people at a busy bazaar in eastern Afghanistan, and a bomb hidden outside a provincial governor's compound slightly wounded the official, authorities said. The attacks were in Paktia and Khost provinces, both of which border Pakistan and suffer frequent violence as insurgents gain momentum in their fight against Afghan and international troops. In Gardez, the capital of Paktia province to the south, a suicide bomber on foot blew himself up in a bazaar near a six-vehicle convoy of security workers, said Deputy Governor Abdul Rahman Mangal. He said seven people were killed, including the commander of Afghan security guards at a base for a provincial reconstruction team in Logar province, and another 24 were wounded. Such teams are joint civilian-military units that secure and develop areas of Afghanistan. In Khost, Governor Tahr Khan Sabari was cut by glass from windows shattered in the blast but not seriously injured, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary told The Associated Press. Sabari's spokesman, Arifullah Pashton, said five other people, including two journalists who were meeting with the governor, also were slightly wounded. Khost is one of Afghanistan's most troubled provinces, and seven CIA employees were killed December 30 when a suicide bomber attacked an agency base there. On Wednesday, at least 15 people were wounded in a blast outside a shop in Khost city, the provincial centre. Earlier on Thursday, three rockets were fired into a residential area of Kabul, wounding three civilians. The Interior Ministry said in a statement that two of the rockets hit a house and the third landed in a garden. Local police said the attack was in the Qalafa neighborhood, about three miles south-east of central Kabul. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but NATO's Afghan operation pointed the finger at the Taliban. (Source: Press Association)

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