Suicide Bomber Kills 15 In Afghanistan

A suicide bomber wearing a burqa killed 15 people and wounding 22 others when he blew himself up Thursday in a crowded market in western Afghanistan, a provincial official said.

Three policemen, including a district police chief, and 12 civilians were among the dead. The police tried to stop the bomber seconds before he exploded in the Dilaram district of Farah province, said the provincial official, Younus Rasoul.

Afghanistan is battling a Taliban-led insurgency that is strongest in its east and south. Militants launched more than 140 suicide bombings in the country last year, and many of those killed in the attacks were civilians.

At least 1,200 people - mostly militants - have died in insurgency-related violence in 2008, according to a tally compiled by The Associated Press. The U.N. says more than 8,000 people, most of them militants, died in insurgency-related violence in 2007.

Meanwhile, a U.N. rights official says foreign intelligence agents have taken part in secret raids in Afghanistan that have killed civilians.

U.N. envoy Philip Alston told reporters Thursday that he is aware of at least three such recent raids in the country's south and east.

He says no one is taking responsibility for the killings.

He says one raid in January that killed two Afghan brothers was conducted by Afghans and personnel from a U.S. special forces base in Kandahar.

He says Afghan government officials have said the victims had no connection to Taliban insurgents.

Alston says foreign intelligence agencies are operating with "impunity" in certain provinces. He says such operations are "absolutely unacceptable."