Roadside bombs killed eight Afghan soldiers on Friday, a provincial governor said, in the latest incidents of violence as NATO members prepare to expand an Afghan peacekeeping force.
Seven soldiers were wounded in two separate blasts in Kunar province, which is on the border with Pakistan, said the province’s governor, Assadullah Wafa.
“The soldiers were going in convoys when the enemies of Afghanistan set off bombs planted on the roads,” Wafa told Reuters.
Six soldiers were killed in one of the blasts and two were killed in the other, he said.
He did not elaborate on who he thought was responsible but Taliban and allied militants are known to operate in the province.
U.S. forces mounted a major sweep to clear insurgents from Kunar last year and 16 U.S. troops were killed there in June when their helicopter was shot down.
A U.S. missile strike on a Pakistani village opposite Kunar last month killed at least 18 civilians, and possibly several suspected al-Qaida members, though no bodies have been found.
In a separate incident, four Canadian soldiers were slightly wounded when a roadside bomb hit their armored vehicle in the southern Kandahar province on Thursday evening, a spokesman for Canadian troops said. A Taliban commander claimed responsibility.
Afghanistan has seen a surge of bomb attacks in recent months, including numerous suicide blasts.
Violence has also erupted over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published in European newspapers, with 10 people killed in clashes when angry protesters tried to storm foreign military bases and clashed with police.
More NATO troops
Trouble also erupted between Sunni and Shiite Muslims at a religious procession in the western city of Herat on Thursday and at least five people were killed and scores wounded in fighting between members of the different sects.
Herat governor Sayed Hussein Anwari said the violence was provoked by a small group “trying to make mischief.” The city was quiet on Friday, he said.
Despite the violence, NATO defense chiefs meeting in Italy on Thursday pledged to expand alliance peacekeeping in Afghanistan.
defense ministers agreed to check security measures in place for their 9,000-strong International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan, but insisted its expansion to 16,000 troops this year would go ahead as planned.
NATO plans to expand the force -- already in the north, west and the capital Kabul -- to the more volatile south and ultimately the east.
NATO would then manage all international peacekeeping in the country, allowing a larger U.S.-led force to reduce troop numbers and focus on hunting the Taliban and al-Qaida remnants seen as behind the insurgency.