Six dead in Kabul suicide attack

There has been an increase in attacks in recent months

Six people have been killed and at least 15 injured in a car bomb attack on a coalition convoy near the airport in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.

Officials say a car pulled up alongside an armoured vehicle used by coalition forces during rush hour and exploded.

The Taleban say they were responsible for the attack.

Meanwhile reports say that some 50 militants have been killed in two incidents in the south of the country in recent days.

After Thursday's bomb blast in Kabul, US and Afghan forces cordoned off the scene of the blast and Afghan police used canes to repel curious onlookers.

A witness told the BBC a huge blast had filled the air with smoke.

"They say six people were killed but it was such a major explosion that there must be more casualties," the witness said.

A local man, Mohammad Salim, told the Associated Press news agency he took four wounded Afghans to hospital.

"I saw the Americans getting out of the vehicle, then pointing their guns. Then they moved under a tree," he said.

Four US soldiers are reported to have received minor cuts and bruises.

Southern clashes

The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Kabul says there has been a sharp increase in violence in Afghanistan in recent months with suicide bombings becoming increasingly common.

Last month, a car bomb attack in southern city of Kandahar killed more than 100 people. It was the worst single attack since the fall of the Taleban in 2001.

A UN report published this week said there were 8,000 conflict-related deaths in 2007 - a fifth of which were civilians.

Meanwhile the governor of the southern province of Nimroz says 41 Taleban militants were killed by US-led coalition forces in clashes on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the US military confirmed that coalition forces were involved in action in Nimroz but was unable to verify the number of casualties.

Coalition forces say they were also called in to provide air support to a unit of Afghan security forces clashing with insurgents in Nimroz.

In Helmand province, US-led coalition forces say they killed nearly a dozen Taleban militants following an operation on Tuesday.