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Taliban suicide car bomber attacks British convoy in Afghanistan | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP)- A Taliban suicide car bomber rammed a British military convoy in southern Afghanistan on Friday, wounding three soldiers and one Afghan national, a coalition spokesman said.

A man driving a station wagon rigged to explode struck the convoy at about 10:30 a.m. in the Helmand provincial capital of Lashkar Gar, said provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Rahman Saber.

British troops immediately cordoned off the attack scene near the so-called British-run provincial reconstruction team base in Lashkar Gah, Saber said.

Three coalition soldiers and an Afghan national were wounded in the suicide attack carried out by a Taliban militant, coalition spokesman in Kandahar, Canadian Maj. Quentin Innis, said.

Innis declined to provide the nationalities of the soldiers, but the British Ministry of Defense said two soldiers suffered minor wounds in an incident in Lashkar Gar.

Taliban militants have increased suicide attacks against coalition forces, particularly in southern Afghanistan, in recent months.

The change in tactics is of concern to the British military as more than 3,000 British troops take control of the area as part of a NATO mission.

Helmand is also Afghanistan’s main opium poppy-growing region and fears of widespread violence have risen since an aggressive poppy eradication campaign started in recent weeks.

Rugged mountains in the province are popular hiding places for Taliban rebels, many of whom are believed to slip back and forth across the province’s largely unguarded border with Pakistan.