KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber struck a United Nations convoy Sunday in southern Afghanistan, killing two Afghan doctors on their way to provide polio vaccinations to children, together with their driver.
Separately, at least six children were killed and more than a dozen injured while playing with what Afghan authorities said was a roadside bomb planted by the Taliban and aimed at foreign troops.
The attack on the U.N. convoy in Kandahar province injured five guards and 10 passers-by.
The doctors were working for the U.N.’s World Health Organization. Their convoy was clearly marked with U.N. insignia.
There was no claim of responsibility, but suspicion fell on the Taliban, which has justified past attacks against aid workers by declaring them to be in league with Western troops.
Western forces have themselves been the focus of Afghan anger over a growing tally of civilian deaths and injuries. A senior U.S. military officer is to lead a renvestigation of a U.S.-led strike Aug. 22 in Herat province that Afghan authorities and the United Nations say killed 90 people, two-thirds of them civilians.
Afghan officials have said they believe coalition forces were unwittingly drawn into a clan vendetta and duped into carrying out the raid.
The Interior Ministry disclosed Sunday that three men were arrested last week and accused of providing false information to the U.S.-led forces that led to the strike on the village.
Los Angeles Times
