KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suicide car bomb exploded near a U.N. convoy in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing the attacker but hurting no one else, officials said.
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The attack occurred in Kandahar city, a former Taliban stronghold, as the convoy was traveling to a nearby U.S.-led coalition base, said provincial government spokesman Dawood Ahmadi.
U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards said there were no immediate reports of casualties among the convoy's occupants.
An Associated Press reporter saw what appeared to be parts of the body of the attacker on the road next to a severely damaged and burned U.N. four-wheel-drive vehicle. Bits of the attacker's car were scattered around the area.
The powerful blast smashed windows nearly 100 yards from the attack site and pushed the U.N. vehicle off the road and onto its side.
Parts of Afghanistan have been wracked by a spate of suicide bombings in the past eight months, representing a new and disturbing security threat four years after the Taliban government was ousted for harboring al-Qaida.
U.S. military commanders have said they are having problems countering the new tactic, and the Taliban has claimed it has a large number of volunteers willing to carry out such assaults.
Wednesday's attack was the second against the United Nations since last Friday, when rockets slammed into a UNICEF car in western Afghanistan, killing two Afghans.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060517...g8F;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--
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The attack occurred in Kandahar city, a former Taliban stronghold, as the convoy was traveling to a nearby U.S.-led coalition base, said provincial government spokesman Dawood Ahmadi.
U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards said there were no immediate reports of casualties among the convoy's occupants.
An Associated Press reporter saw what appeared to be parts of the body of the attacker on the road next to a severely damaged and burned U.N. four-wheel-drive vehicle. Bits of the attacker's car were scattered around the area.
The powerful blast smashed windows nearly 100 yards from the attack site and pushed the U.N. vehicle off the road and onto its side.
Parts of Afghanistan have been wracked by a spate of suicide bombings in the past eight months, representing a new and disturbing security threat four years after the Taliban government was ousted for harboring al-Qaida.
U.S. military commanders have said they are having problems countering the new tactic, and the Taliban has claimed it has a large number of volunteers willing to carry out such assaults.
Wednesday's attack was the second against the United Nations since last Friday, when rockets slammed into a UNICEF car in western Afghanistan, killing two Afghans.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060517...g8F;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--