Four Afghan soldiers have been killed and six wounded after their vehicle was hit by a rocket fired by unidentified assailants in southern Afghanistan, an Afghan news agency has reported.
The soldiers were patrolling a desert area in search of suspected smugglers today when their vehicle was targeted by unidentified men, the Peshawar-based independent Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said, quoting an Afghan army officer.
It did not say exactly where the attack took place.
AIP said four soldiers died and six were wounded in the rocket attack. The vehicle was destroyed.
The agency quoted the army officer as saying that attacks on Afghan soldiers had increased in southern Afghanistan since the bombing by US planes of a wedding party in Uruzgan province last month that killed 48 people.
The US planes had reportedly bombed the wedding party after they mistook traditional celebratory gunfire for an attack.
AIP quoted the Afghan army officer as saying the Pashtun heartland of southern Afghanistan - once the stronghold of the vanquished Taliban - was turning against the US and its allies since the wedding bombing.