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Kandahar: A suicide bomber struck a road construction crew yesterday in southwestern Afghanistan, killing an Indian engineer and his Afghan driver, a provincial governor said.
In other violence, 24 Taliban militants died in clashes with Afghan and foreign troops in southern Afghanistan. The insurgents were believed to be responsible for another attack on a road-building project days earlier.
Yesterday's suicide attack on an Indian construction crew in the southwestern province of Nimroz injured eight people, including five Indian workers and two civilians, said Governor Gulam Dastagir.
The bomber approached the construction site on foot, he said.
"[The Taliban] are conducting these suicide attacks and terrorist attacks to stop the development and reconstruction in Afghanistan," Dastagir said.
Suicide attacks have been on the rise in Afghanistan, with the Taliban launching more than 140 such missions last year - the highest number since the radical Islamist group was ousted from power by a US-led invasion in 2001.
Militants often target work crews in roadside bomb attacks, ambushes and kidnappings, killing and wounding dozens of workers and their private security guards.
Airstrikes
On Friday in southern Zabul province, Afghan and foreign troops clashed and called in airstrikes on militants, leaving 24 militants dead and eight others wounded, said Deputy Governor Ghulab Shah Alikheil.
The joint forces conducted the operations in two separate mountainous areas of Zabul, Alikheil said.
There were no casualties among Afghan and foreign troops, he said.
The operation was aimed at militants responsible for Tuesday's ambush on a road construction crew in the province that killed 17 people and wounded 16 others, Alikheil said.
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