A suicide bomber in a car blew himself up at a police checkpoint in Chaparhar district of eastern Nangarhar province where officers were searching cars, killing six people, including five civilians and one policeman, said police spokesman Gafor Khan. The blast also wounded four civilians and a policeman, he said.
South of Nangarhar in Khost province, a bombing killed five people near a shrine as they celebrated the Persian new year, said the provincial police spokesman, Wazir Pacha. The blast on the outskirts of Khost city wounded five people, he said.
The militant Taliban group that ruled over Afghanistan in 1990s practices an extreme version of Islam and discouraged people from celebrating the Persian new year, known as Nowruz, when they controlled the country. Many Taliban and al-Qaida militants sought sanctuary in Pakistan after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan and have been staging cross-border attacks.
The NATO fatality occurred Friday, the same day four Canadian troops serving with the NATO-led force were killed in two separate explosions, the alliance said.
The Saturday statement did not disclose the victim's nationality or the site of the incident.
Southern Afghanistan is the center of the Taliban-led insurgency. Thousands of new U.S. troops soon will be joining British, Canadian and Dutch forces trying to reverse gains by the Taliban and expand governance and security.
