Afghan Suicide Attack Kills Passerby

A suicide car bomber struck near an American military base here Sunday, killing at least one other person, and a U.S. soldier was reportedly slain in heavy fighting with insurgents in southern Afghanistan.

A U.S. airstrike also killed about 50 suspected Taliban militants in Kandahar province, the U.S.-led coalition said today.

The attack occurred late Sunday and early today on the village of Azizi in Panjwayi district, said a coalition spokesman, Canadian Maj. Scott Lundy.

Residents said scores of civilians had also been killed and wounded. Lundy said the coalition was investigating.

The U.S.-led coalition today also said Afghan and U.S. forces had captured a mid-level Taliban leader Friday in the Tarin Kowt district of Oruzgan province.

The captive was identified as Mullah Mohibullah, Taliban commander for Helmand province, where coalition forces have fought a series of intense battles with insurgents in recent days, including an ambush last week that killed a U.S. service member. Mohibullah also is suspected in connection with numerous attacks against Afghan officials and coalition forces.

In the suicide bombing in Kabul, a car accident prevented the suicide bomber from reaching his apparent target, a store frequented by foreigners on the outskirts of the capital, said Yousuf Stanizai, spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry.

But Stanizai added that the target may have been U.S. or North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces that have bases on the same road.

The bomber, who was driving in a taxi, hit a truck and exploded near the Supreme PX about 10 a.m. Sunday. A man passing by and the suicide bomber died, Stanizai said.

More than four years after U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban, Afghanistan’s insurgency is escalating. And the Afghan government is sharpening its criticism of neighboring Pakistan, charging that insurgent leaders are coordinating cross-border attacks from Pakistani territory.

“The leadership of the Taliban and other terror groups are living in Pakistan,” the new Afghan foreign minister, Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, told reporters here Sunday.

U.S. officials have publicly praised Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s support in the U.S.-declared war on terrorism, but intelligence assessments by the American military say some Pakistani forces support guerrillas crossing into Afghanistan.

In Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao dismissed the latest charges from Kabul.

“We deny the Taliban leaders are here,” Sherpao said. “These kind of allegations will not help relations,” he added.

Last week, as the latest surge in violence began with battles in southern Afghanistan, Afghan President Hamid Karzai stepped up criticisms of Pakistan and accused it of direct involvement in the Afghan war.

Speaking in Asadabad, about 10 miles from the border with Pakistan, Karzai said Thursday that during a recent visit to Islamabad he had told Musharraf to stop interfering in Afghan affairs.

“I told him, ‘Afghanistan is a land that will never be anyone’s slave. It would not be a slave to the British or Russia and nor will it be to you,’ ” Karzai said. “I told him, ‘Mr. Musharraf, there was once a time when Afghanistan’s governments were being formed and collapsed in Pakistan. Those times have gone.’ ”

Pakistan’s military points out that it has deployed 80,000 troops along the Afghan border and lost hundreds of soldiers and police in offensives to capture foreign and local militants.

But dropping diplomatic niceties, Karzai accused Pakistani religious schools, or madrasas, of recruiting fighters to wage holy war in Afghanistan.

“We know very well that in Pakistani madrasas, boys are being told to go to Afghanistan for jihad,” Karzai said during a visit to Kunar province, an eastern border region where U.S. and allied Afghan forces are battling insurgents.

“Our demand from Pakistan is, brother, dear neighbor, terrorism is such a fire that if today it catches me, tomorrow it will catch you,” Karzai said.

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Special correspondent Zaman reported from Kabul and Times staff writer Watson from New Delhi. Associated Press was used in compiling this report.