Bomb Kills 2 Afghans Guarding NATO Convoy

A roadside bomb killed two Afghans guarding a convoy carrying supplies for NATO-led forces, while eight suspected insurgents and a police officer died in fighting elsewhere in the country, officials said Saturday.

The attacks were the latest in a relentless tide of violence in south and eastern Afghanistan over the last 18 months that has exposed the weaknesses of the western-backed government in the capital, Kabul.

Insurgents attacked the logistics convoy in southern Kandahar province, a former Taliban stronghold, with a remote controlled bomb, said provincial police chief Sayed Aqa Saqib. Two guards were killed instantly, while three others were wounded, he said.

Afghan soldiers in neighboring Helmand province shot and killed two suspected Taliban fighters as they attempted to plant a roadside bomb, said police officer Ghulam Wali. The bomb was later defused, he said.

On Friday, insurgents attacked a police patrol in eastern Paktika, sparking a gunbattle that killed six militants and one officer, the ministry of interior said in a statement. It gave no more details.

Violence in Afghanistan is running at its highest level since U.S. forces invaded the country in 2001 to oust the hard-line Islamic Taliban rulers, who had harbored al Qaeda leaders following the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.