Car bomb targeting NATO aid team kills 4 Afghans

By DEB RIECHMANN

The Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide car bomber targeting a NATO-sponsored reconstruction team killed at least four people and wounded 31 on Thursday in southern Afghanistan, officials said.

In this United Nations handout photo, Jan Kubis, center, the new special representative of the U.N. Secretary-General to Afghanistan speaks during a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. The U.N.'s new representative to Afghanistan says that while the country remains dangerous, he is encouraged by widespread discussion across the country about prospects for peace with the Taliban. (AP Photo/United Nations)

In this United Nations handout photo, Jan Kubis, the new special representative of the U.N. Secretary-General to Afghanistan speaks during a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. The U.N.'s new representative to Afghanistan says that while the country remains dangerous, he is encouraged by widespread discussion across the country about prospects for peace with the Taliban. (AP Photo/United Nations)

An Afghan woman clad in burqa waits for alms in a cold morning in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)

Election 2012: Across the nation

• After bitter debate, Romney and Santorum eye Mich.
• FACT CHECK: Errant claims on auto bailout, taxes
• Notable moments from GOP debate in Arizona
• FACT CHECK: Errant claims on auto bailout, taxes
• GOP candidates in 20th debate
• Interactive: Know the candidates

More Nation & World stories »

• Texas torture victim calls survival 'miracle'
• 2 charged in death of Ala girl forced to run
• KBR ex-CEO to be sentenced Thurs. in bribery case
• Farmers furious after Iraq stops buying US rice

The dead were all Afghan civilians and included a child, said Daud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

The bomber detonated the explosives-laden vehicle Thursday morning as a convoy of a NATO Provincial Reconstruction Team passed by in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, he said.

Ahmadi said there were foreigners inside the vehicles but could not confirm if any were among the 31 wounded.

Provincial Reconstruction Teams are joint international military-civilian units dedicated to aid projects to boost support for the Afghan government. They are sponsored by the NATO military coalition and there are 27 now operating in Afghanistan.

A statement from the Ministry of Interior said the attack took place near an Education Department building, though Ahmadi initially described it as an aid office. The Ministry said the vehicles in the convoy were about 70 percent destroyed.

Helmand has been one of the most volatile areas in the Taliban insurgency's pushback against a U.S.-led initiative to bring southern Afghanistan under greater control of the central Afghan government.

Elsewhere, a rocket fired by Taliban insurgents killed a woman and her child in eastern Afghanistan.

Insurgents fired the mortar round during a battle Wednesday with Afghan army soldiers trying to clear militants from a stronghold in Kapisa province's Alasay district, said the provincial governor's chief of staff, Abdul Sabor Wafa.

President Hamid Karzai and NATO's commander for Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, condemned the insurgents on Thursday for the civilian deaths.

___

January 26, 2012 04:06 AM EST

Copyright 2012, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.