Deadly blast in south Afghanistan

A bomb explosion near a power plant in southern Afghanistan has killed two employees, police say.

Helmand police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal said eight people had been hurt in the blast in the Gereshk district of the troubled province.

He said the remote-controlled device was apparently hidden in a control room at the plant.

Nato and government troops in Afghanistan have been battling a resurgent Taleban militia.

Two passers-by were also hurt when the bomb went off.

The blast did not affect the power station itself, situated on a dam just outside the town.

There has been an increase in the number of bomb and suicide attacks in Helmand province but most have been targeting foreign troops or Afghan nation security forces.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Kabul says it is unusual for insurgents to target civilians involved in infrastructure directly, although many Afghans are killed or injured by bomb blasts.

However, earlier this week government officials said eight people died and 17 were injured when a bomb went off at a weekly market elsewhere in Helmand in an attack that appeared to directed at civilians.

A recent UN report on Afghan violence said there were 8,000 conflict-related deaths in 2007 - a fifth of which were civilians.