KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) — A suicide car bomber rammed a NATO-led convoy in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province on Wednesday, causing a number of injuries, Afghan police said.
A NATO spokesman confirmed a car bomb attack but had no details of casualties.
Afghan police border commander General Abdul Raziq said that a Canadian NATO convoy was struck by the blast on the highway linking Kandahar city to the troubled town of Spin Boldak, near the border with Pakistan.
"Two Canadian soldiers, two Afghan civilians and two police were wounded in the suicide attack today," Raziq said.
Most of the foreign forces in Kandahar are Canadian.
The press office for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul said they could not confirm any casualties at this stage.
"I can confirm we did have a vehicle-borne IED (improvised explosive device) attack near Kandahar but at this stage I cannot confirm any casualties," a spokesman said.
Kandahar, the birthplace of the the Taliban regime ousted by US-led forces in late 2001, saw a series of major incidents in June including a mass rebel jailbreak and an attempt by militants to take villages outside the city.
A helicopter from the US-led coalition in Afghanistan was shot down with small arms fire near the capital Kabul early Wednesday but there were no serious injuries, the force said.
The UH-60 Black Hawk aircraft caught fire after the incident in Logar province, which comes amid a surge in a deadly Taliban-linked insurgency in Afghanistan.
"A coalition helicopter was shot down by small-arms fire in Kherwar District, Logar province, earlier this morning," a US-led coalition statement said.
"The pilots safely landed the aircraft and evacuated all personnel before the aircraft caught on fire. There were no serious injuries to the crew or passengers," it said.
Coalition troops destroyed the remains of the chopper, the statement said.
"Coalition forces cleared the area using helicopters in a show of force and firing warning rounds before using precision-guided munitions to destroy the helicopter," it added.
The incident was still under investigation, said the coalition.
The month of June was the deadliest for international forces in Afghanistan since the Taliban were toppled, with 49 troops killed in action or accidents. Most died because of bombings.
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