A suicide bombing kills five French soldiers in eastern Afghanistan

A suicide bombing killed five French soldiers in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, representing one of that country’s largest one-day losses of the war.

The attack took place in the Tagab district of Kapisa province, said provincial spokesman Sabor Wafa. NATO’s International Security Assistance Force confirmed the deaths of five service members without specifying the nationality; French officials subsequently said the slain troops were French.

France has said it will begin a phased withdrawal of its troops in Afghanistan.

Eastern Afghanistan, particularly the area close to the border with Pakistan, has been increasingly violent in recent weeks, with the fighting between NATO troops and insurgents compounded by cross-border artillery fire from Pakistan.

Also Wednesday, Western military officials reported another military death in the south of Afghanistan a day earlier.

The upsurge in violence comes as U.S. commanders prepare to begin a White House-ordered drawdown of American forces. Ten thousand troops are to depart before the end of the year, and another 23,000 are to leave next year.

The mood across the south was jittery Wednesday as senior officials converged on the village of Karz, in Kandahar province, for the funeral of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the assassinated half-brother of President Hamid Karzai.

Ahmed Wali Karzai, considered to be the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan, was shot and killed Tuesday by a police commander who had long been a trusted family associate.

The governor of neighboring Helmand province escaped injury Wednesday when a powerful remote-control bomb exploded as his convoy was en route to the funeral. The blast, in Kandahar’s Maiwand district, injured two troops attached to the Afghan intelligence service, but the governor, Ghulab Mangal, was unhurt, aides said.

Abdul Razaq, the police chief in Kandahar, said Wednesday that two other hidden bombs had been uncovered near Karz, the ancestral village of the Karzai clan -- also apparently intended to target funeral attendees. Western troops had helped sweep the area beforehand.

In yet another violent episode Wednesday, insurgents used an explosives-laden truck to try to ram their way into a joint Afghan and Western base in Wardak province, close to the capital, Kabul. But the vehicle bomb went off prematurely when guards opened fire, and the only fatality was the bomber.

Laura.King@latimes.com