A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden car near a Nato-led convoy in the Afghan city of Kandahar Sunday, killing two civilians and injuring three Nato soldiers, officials said.
Another Afghan civilian was killed and six others were injured as Nato troops opened fire on a civilian car, fearing it might be a second bombing attempt after the early morning attack in the Dorahi area of Kandahar, they said.
"I can confirm there was a suicide attack," interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said, adding the blast killed two Afghan civilians and injured a dozen more.
He said the attack was aimed at a Nato-led military convoy. The Nato press office in Kabul confirmed three of its soldiers were wounded but declined to give details.
The Kandahar region in southern Afghanistan has seen most of such attacks this year.
Nato spokesman Major Luke Knittig confirmed the attack on the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) patrol, but did not provide details.
"There was an explosion near an ISAF patrol. Initial indications (are) it was a suicide bombing," Knittig told AFP.
An AFP correspondent at the scene said the vehicle believed to have belonged to the attacker was gutted and a military car was damaged. The bomber was blown to pieces. ISAF troops sealed off the area after the suicide bombing.
Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for the Kandahar governor, said "while the troops sealed off the area, a civilian car approached them and did not stop as ordered near the site of the explosion. Nato forces fired on them and six people were injured in the firing."
Interior Minister Zarar Ahmad Muqbel later said the incident left one Afghan dead. "One civilian was killed in the firing," he told a news conference in Kabul.
Nato headquarters in Kabul said it was investigating the firing.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed the attack on behalf of Taliban insurgents. He said the bombing was carried out by an Afghan national.
"We claim responsibility for the attack. It was a suicide attack carried out by a Taliban mujahedin (holy warrior) from Kandahar," Ahmadi said by telephone from an unknown location.
The attack was the seventh suicide bombing in the past few days. Two ISAF soldiers were killed in a similar bombing on November 27.
Afghanistan has suffered a wave of suicide attacks since last week after a relative lull, leaving about two dozen people dead, including four Nato soldiers.
This year has been the bloodiest since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001, with more than 100 suicide bombings killing 230 Afghans and 17 foreign troops, ISAF said.
More than 3,700 people - mainly insurgents but including 1,000 civilians plus Afghan soldiers and police - have been killed this year, four times the toll for 2005, according to an official report.