Roadside Bomb Kills 5 NATO Soldiers in Afghanistan

Posted December 21st, 2011 at 9:40 am (UTC-5)
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NATO says a roadside bomb has killed five of its soldiers in southeastern Afghanistan.

Local Afghan officials said an improvised explosive device went off Wednesday near a convoy of coalition troops in the province of Ghazni.

The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming that the coalition members killed were part of a Polish convoy.

Earlier Wednesday, Afghan police said they shot and killed an attempted suicide bomber before he could detonate his explosives outside a bank in the eastern province of Khost, near the Pakistani border.

It is not immediately clear whether the would-be suicide bomber was targeting the bank or a nearby police station. Police are also looking for a possible second attacker who escaped.

Khost province is a known stronghold of the Haqqani network, an al-Qaida-linked militant group that U.S. officials blame for a series of high-profile attacks in Afghanistan.