Bomb from US plane kills 12 Afghan police

A bomb dropped by a US warplane in southeastern Afghanistan killed 12 border police today and wounded two more, a provincial …

A bomb dropped by a US warplane in southeastern Afghanistan killed 12 border police today and wounded two more, a provincial governor said.

The incident happened near Pakistan border in Paktika province, governor Akram Ekhpul Wak said. A spokesman for the US military said it was investigating the reports.

The US military is in charge of security operations in Paktika. The governor said the provincial government would set up an inquiry into the incident. No further details were available.

Earlier, a suicide bomber blew himself up near an Afghan police post in the volatile southern province of Uruzgan, wounding seven policemen, three critically, the provincial police chief said.

READ MORE

And a foreign soldier with US-led coalition troops was wounded when a roadside bomb hit his convoy in neighbouring Kandahar province.

The attacks are the latest in a rising cycle of violence, especially in the Taliban's southern and eastern heartland, that has plunged the country into its worst period of bloodshed since the hardline Islamist movement was driven from power in 2001.

Uruzgan police chief Mohammad Qasim said the suicide bomber had detonated explosives strapped to his body as he neared the post while being chased by other police. "We had information in advance of a suicide attack and we were chasing him," he said.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said the group had carried out the attack and the bomber was an Afghan. He said several police had been killed or wounded. More than 1,800 people have died in violence this year, most of them militants, say Afghan and coalition commanders.

The dead also include more than 80 foreign soldiers. Last month NATO, mainly British and Canadian forces, took over security in the south from the U.S.-led coalition to allow Washington to withdraw about 3,000 soldiers from the country. The Taliban and Islamic allies such as al-Qaeda are mostly active in the south and east.