NATO troops among dead in Afghan suicide raid

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan - Several Afghans and two NATO soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber threw himself at the troops in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, witnesses and an army officer said.

A NATO vehicle was set alight in the attack in the main bazaar of Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, they said.

"The bomber was on foot and hurled himself at the convoy of NATO," said Shamsuddin an Afghan army officer near the scene.

"Two NATO soldiers died and two others have been wounded."

British troops were among the wounded, a Defence Ministry spokeswoman said in London. "We can confirm that a small number of UK soldiers have been injured in an explosion in Laskar Gah... We have no reports of British fatalities," she said. She did not give information about Afghan casualties.

Several bodies of civilians were scattered on the ground, some with limbs blown off, witnesses said.

British troops make up the bulk of NATO forces in Helmand, a Taleban stronghold and the heart of the illegal opium industry in the world's biggest producer.

This is Afghanistan's bloodiest year since a US-led invasion ousted the Taleban's strict Islamist government in 2001. More than 3,000 people, including more than 150 foreign soldiers, have died in fighting.

- REUTERS