Six people killed by suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan

A SUICIDE car bomb attack killed five civilians and a policeman in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar today.

The bomber attacked a police checkpoint in Chaparhar district of eastern Nangarhar province where officers were searching cars. Four more officers were injured.

And in southern Afghanistan, a Nato soldier was killed in a hostile incident yesterday. Meanwhile, four Canadian troops serving with the Nato-led force were murdered in two separate explosions, the alliance said.

Canada has about 2500 soldiers in the country and yesterday's deaths brought the number killed to 116.

Brigadier General Jonathan Vance, the commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, said: "Success in war is costly. We are determined to succeed so that Afghan lives improve, but the insurgents are equally determined to challenge and prevent Afghanistan from flourishing as the nation it so wants to be."

He said two soldiers and an Afghan interpreter died and five were wounded in a blast during a foot patrol in west Kandahar.

Two other soldiers died and three were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in the Shah Wali Kot district.