Five US soldiers were wounded in a roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan on Saturday while, in a separate incident, a suicide bomber blew himself up in an attack on Canadian troops, military officials said.
No Canadian or Afghan army troops were hurt in the attack in Kandahar province but Afghan soldiers killed a man on a motorbike, mistaking him for another attacker, an Afghan commander said.
The Taleban claimed responsibility for the third suicide attack in three days. A Canadian soldier and at least seven passers-by were wounded in the earlier attacks.
Violence in Afghanistan has intensified in recent days since Taleban insurgents said they launched a spring offensive in their campaign to oust foreign troops and defeat the Western-backed government.
The US troops were wounded while on patrol in the Peche valley of eastern Kunar province, near the border with Pakistan and the scene of repeated clashes between insurgents and US and Afghan government troops.
A roadside bomb struck their armoured vehicle, US military spokesman Lieutenant Mike Cody said.
The five wounded men were evacuated to the main US military base at Bagram, north of Kabul, he said. He did not know their condition.
In a separate incident, the head of provincial council in the north-eastern province of Takhar was killed by unidentified gunmen who raided his house on Saturday, an interior ministry official said. Sayed Sadiq, a former factional commander, was elected to the province's council in September.
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