Afghan Bomb Kills NATO Soldier, Wounds 2

A roadside bomb struck a NATO patrol vehicle in southern Afghanistan, killing one soldier and wounding two others, while an attack on police in the east left two militants and one officer dead, officials said Tuesday.

The blast which killed the NATO soldier occurred in the volatile Panjwayi district of the southern Kandahar province on Monday, NATO said in a statement. The nationality of the dead and wounded soldiers was not disclosed.

The wounded soldiers were taken to a nearby military hospital for treatment, NATO said.

Although NATO has assumed control of military operations in Afghanistan, the U.S. is leading a smaller coalition of a few thousand American and other troops focusing on counterterrorism operations and the hunt for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

In the east, Taliban fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns at a police post in Khost province late Monday, said Gen. Mohammad Ayub, the provincial police chief. The ensuing clash left two militants and one police killed. Two policemen were also wounded, he said.

Police rushed reinforcements to the area, forcing the militants to flee, Ayub said. They took their dead with them, he said.

In the eastern Paktia province, suspected Taliban militants released three kidnapped Afghan aid workers but are still holding two other hostages, said Gen. Abdul Anan Raufi, a provincial police chief.

The four aid workers and their driver, employed by the International Organization for Migration, were abducted on Sunday in Zormat district, Raufi said.

The workers were on their way to visit a new school in the area, he said.

The three were released Monday after village elders intervened, Raufi said. The elders are still trying to win the release of the other two, he said.