Afghan Bomber Explodes Near Foreign Troops

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – A suspected homicide bomber detonated explosives in a car near a convoy of foreign soldiers in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Monday, killing himself and wounding two passers-by, the local governor said.

There was no damage to the convoy and none of the foreign soldiers were hurt, Kandahar city Gov. Asadullah Khalid said.

He said the convoy consisted of U.S. troops, but other local officials said they were Canadian. An Associated Press reporter at the scene said he saw U.S. and Canadian military vehicles.

A U.S. military spokesman said he had no information on the blast.

Police and Afghan soldiers, as well as foreign troops, cordoned off the area.

Khalid identified the wounded passers-by as a woman and a child. Both were taken to a local hospital, he said.

The blast follows a string of homAfghan icide attacks and comes days after a top Taliban rebel commander, Mullah Dadullah, claimed that more than 200 insurgents were willing to kill themselves in assaults on U.S. forces and their allies.

Afghanistan's government dismissed the claim as propaganda, though President Hamid Karzai said last month that he expects attacks to continue.

Last year was the deadliest in Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001 for harboring Usama bin Laden. The fighting killed about 1,600 people as militants belonging to the Taliban, Al Qaeda and other groups have stepped up attacks.