Nato patrols escape 2 bombings

Afghan men carry a motor-bike at the site of a suicide car bomb attack in Kandahar Thursday. Nato pushed yesterday with a big anti-Taliban operation in a southern Afghan rebel stronghold where a suicide bomber killed 21 people and four Canadian troops died in other attacks. PHOTO: AFP

The violence further highlighted the dangers facing a Nato force that took command of the country's volatile south on Monday and which has lost seven soldiers in rebel attacks since then.

The early morning bombs exploded in restive Kandahar province as Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) patrols passed, but caused no damage or casualties to the force, a spokesman said.

The first destroyed a civilian vehicle but it seemed unlikely it was a vehicle-borne suicide bomb of the sort that killed 21 civilians in the area on Thursday, Major Scott Lundy said.

Separately, the US-led coalition that handed over control of the south to Nato this week said its forces and Afghan troops had killed 25 Taliban "extremists" on Thursday in Helmand province, neighbouring Kandahar.

The rebels were killed after they attacked the security force with small-arms and rocket-propelled grenades during a coalition "cordon and search" mission in a village, it said in a statement.

The coalition, which has been in Afghanistan since helping to overthrow the Taliban regime in late 2001, is maintaining a counterterrorism force alongside Nato forces in the restive area.

However, bloodshed has spiked even by southern Afghanistan's grim standards since the official handover to Nato this week.