Four Afghans died in a bomb attack on Wednesday apparently targeting Nato peacekeepers, officials said, a day after President George W. Bush held up Afghanistan as a role model for Iraq.
The blast in the northern Afghan town of Kunduz killed two children and two men, the officials said, the latest attack in a spate of violence ahead of presidential and parliamentary polls supposed to be held in September.
The blast was possibly triggered by a remote-controlled device as a vehicle from a Nato Provincial Reconstruction Team passed along a crowded road in the centre of the city, Afghan officials said.
No peacekeepers were hurt in the attack, a spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force said.
But an Afghan driver of the reconstruction team vehicle was among those killed, General Mohammad Dawood, the senior military commander in Kunduz, told reporters. None of the 250 German troops from the Kunduz team was in the car.
Kunduz Governor Mohammad Omar said the bomb was placed under a kiosk and the reconstruction team car could have been the target.