At least six Afghan policemen and one Indian worker were killed and 12 wounded in a roadside and suicide attack in southwestern Afghanistan Thursday, a government official said, according to dpa. A bomb hidden in a motorbike parked by the roadside exploded in the Khoshrood district of Nimruz province on Thursday afternoon when an Indian road construction company convoy escorted by a police unit was passing by, provincial governor Gholam Dastagir Azaad told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "Only one policeman was wounded in the explosion, but a few minutes later a man, who had strapped explosive around his body, detonated himself, killing six policemen and one Indian worker," Azaad said. He said another 10 policemen and two Indian workers were wounded in the attack, which happened in Shar Gholghola, the main town of the district. Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousif Ahmadi said that two of their militants carried out the attacks in the district, killing "10 Afghan and Indian soldiers." "Assadullah and Abdul Hamid, two of our hero mujahideen, who were the residents of this province, carried out the attacks," Ahmadi said in a statement posted on the Taliban's website. "First one attack was carried out. Five minutes later when a number of policemen gathered in the area, the second hero carried out a tactical attack that caused a huge explosion," Ahmadi said, adding that more than 10 were wounded and three vehicles were destroyed. The attack came a day after General Dan McNeill, commander of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), predicted that the Taliban fighters would avoid direct combat with foreign and local troops in 2008. Instead, the US general stressed, the insurgents would rely mostly on using roadside bombs, and increasing the number of its suicide bombers. More than 140 suicide attacks were carried out by Taliban militants in 2007, while the country had seen more than 6,300 people - mostly insurgents - killed last year, making it the bloodiest year in the country since the ouster of the Taliban regime six years ago.
