Roadside Bomb Kills 9 In Afghanistan

Monday, March 12th 2007, 8:38 am

By: News On 6

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) _ A roadside bomb targeting a police convoy killed nine officers, including a local commander, and left one critically wounded Monday in western Afghanistan, officials said.

The police were traveling in the Bakwa district of Farah province when the bomb exploded, said provincial police spokesman Baryalai Khan. The Bakwa police district commander was among the nine killed.

One of the three vehicles in the convoy was destroyed, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemerai Bashary.

In southern Afghanistan, NATO and Afghan troops clashed with suspected insurgents shortly before calling in an airstrike on a compound that left two militants dead, a spokesman said.

The clash started when militants opened fire and lobbed mortars toward NATO and Afghan troops in the Gereshk district of Helmand province, said Squadron Leader Dave Marsh, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

Two Afghans and one NATO soldier were wounded in the clash, Marsh said.

The violence comes a week after NATO-led troops launched their biggest offensive yet in Helmand, aimed at winning over a population long supportive of militant fighters.