Bombs Kill 8 Afghan Civilians, 2 NATO Soldiers

Eight Afghan civilians were killed in a Taliban bombing in northern Afghanistan on Thursday and two NATO soldiers were killed in similar bombs elsewhere in the troubled country, officials said.

The civilians died in northern Faryab province when their mini-van struck a home-made bomb of the kind widely used by Taliban insurgents in attacks aimed at military forces.

"Eight civilians, including a woman and child, were killed and six others wounded," provincial police chief, Abdul Khaliq Aqsai told Agence France Presse, adding that a police convoy had been passing as the bomb exploded.

Jawed Badar, a spokesman for the provincial administration, said the civilians were travelling to the provincial capital for Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month which is set to start within days.

In separate but similar explosions two NATO soldiers were killed in eastern and southern Afghanistan on Thursday, the military said, giving no further details.

Roadside bombs are the most the common weapon used by Taliban insurgents waging a war to bring down the government of President Hamid Karzai, which is backed by some 130,000 US-led NATO troops.

Most insurgent activity is centered in southern and eastern Afghanistan, but the militants have stepped up attacks in the previously peaceful northern and western parts of the country.

On Wednesday, a bomb that authorities said was planted by the Taliban destroyed 22 fuel tankers carrying supplies for NATO troops in Samangan, a province along a key highway that connects Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, to the north.

Earlier in the week a suicide bomb attack on a wedding party in the same province killed 17 people, including a prominent MP.