Roadside Bomb Kills U.S. Soldier

An American soldier was killed Tuesday when a bomb exploded near a troop patrol in volatile eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. military announced.

U.S. and Afghan troops were traveling in an armored vehicle in Paktika province near the Pakistani border when the roadside bomb exploded. The blast also wounded another U.S. soldier, two Afghan soldiers and a civilian, the military said.

This year has been the deadliest for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the Taliban government was ousted in 2001. At least 87 U.S. military personnel have been killed or have died in accidents. Nearly 1,500 Afghan civilians, security forces personnel and rebels also have died.

Militants also fired two rockets into Kabul late Tuesday, one of which landed about half a mile from the headquarters of North Atlantic Treaty Organization peacekeepers, said Lt. Col. Cristoni Riccar, a spokesman for the force. No casualties were reported.

The attack occurred a day after suicide bombers rammed explosives-laden cars into NATO peacekeepers’ vehicles in two attacks in the Afghan capital -- the first major assault on foreign troops in Kabul in more than a year. The death toll rose to nine Tuesday as a wounded man died.

Police blamed Al Qaeda for the suicide bombings. Such seemingly coordinated attacks are rare in Afghanistan and reinforced fears that Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network is working with the Taliban, its old ally, which claimed responsibility.

President Hamid Karzai said he expected such attacks to continue.

“Terrorism will remain to affect us, will remain to attack us, for much more time to come,” Karzai told reporters while attending an Islamic conference in Austria. “What is important for us right now is to continue to ... strengthen democratic institutions.”

Monday’s bombings occurred within 90 minutes of each other near the headquarters of Afghan-U.N. election organizers. Troops thwarted a suspected third bombing by fatally shooting three people in a car racing toward the scene of the blasts.