Four Afghan civilians killed in two suicide blasts

Four Afghan civilians were killed on Saturday in two separate suicide attacks in the east of the country, the interior ministry said.

In the first a man, woman and child were killed and 25 others injured when a suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up near the public health directorate in Mihtarlam, the capital of Laghman province.

The acting provincial governor said earlier that the blast was caused by a bicycle bomb.

Another suicide attack a few minutes later in the Serahi Alishang area of the city killed one man and injured eight, the interior ministry said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for both attacks and said that six police officers and five intelligence agents were killed while two police vehicles were destroyed, but the group regularly inflates casualty figures.

Homemade bombs or improvised explosive devices have become the weapon of choice for Taliban insurgents and are responsible for most fatalities and casualties among Afghan and NATO troops as well as civilians.

Last Saturday, explosives attached to a motorbike killed 10 civilians in a market in a remote town in northern Kunduz province. The target of the attack -- a pro-government militia leader -- was also killed.

This week a group of 29 domestic and international aid agencies urged NATO leaders meeting in Lisbon to do more to protect civilians, as they discuss the timetable for the handover of security powers to Afghan forces.

This year is the deadliest year for civilian casualties in Afghanistan, according to the United Nations.

The number of ordinary Afghans killed in the conflict rose by a third in the first six months of 2010 to 1,271, with most deaths caused by insurgent attacks, the world body said in its six-monthly update in August.

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