Blasts kill NATO soldier, Afghan policemen

Bomb attacks have devastated Afghanistan in the recent past

KABUL A series of makeshift bomb attacks killed a NATO soldier and three Afghan policemen in eastern and southern flashpoints of the war-torn country, authorities said Thursday, AFP reported.‘An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service member was killed by an improvised explosive device in eastern Afghanistan yesterday,’ the alliance said in a statement without giving further details.NATO does not release the nationality of casualties prior to notification of next of kin, leaving the job for their home countries.The latest death takes to 86 the number of international soldiers to lose their lives in Afghanistan this year, most of them in hostile action, according to a tally maintained by icasualties.org.ISAF numbers more than 58,000 troops from 42 countries, according to its latest information. The force works alongside a US-led coalition that is estimated to number around 10,000 although the figure is not made public.Two Afghan policemen were killed and four people wounded, including two women passers-by, when a roadside bomb ripped through a police vehicle in the southern province ofKandahar on Wednesday, the interior ministry said.A third policeman was killed and one wounded in a similar attack in neighbouring Helmandprovince on Thursday, a statement by the ministry said.It also said three ‘terrorists’ were killed while the bomb they were planting on a road in the Nad Ali district of Helmand went off prematurely.In western Afghanistan, Taliban insurgents beheaded a government employee on charges of spying for foreign forces in the Bala Murghab district of Badghis province, Wali Mohammad Akhundzada deputy provincial governor told AFP.