US soldier killed in southern Afghanistan

A bomb explosion killed a US soldier in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, after a senior Afghan police officer was assassinated in the Kandahar province.

NATO failed to announce the exact location of the Thursday blast. The latest death brings to 41 the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan since the start of 2010.

The rise in NATO fatalities has led to a sharp decline in public support for the Afghan mission, among the US and the European public.

Meanwhile, in the east of Kandahar city, gunmen opened fire on Mohammad Issa, a senior police officer, as he was leaving his house, Afghan police reported.

Police have blamed the Taliban for the attack, but say they have not arrested anyone in connection with the assassination.

In yet another incident on Thursday, a car bomb attack near the main entrance to Camp Phoenix, the US military base in Kabul, wounded some six to eight civilians.

Abdulghaffar Sayedzadeh, the head of Kabul’s criminal investigation department said the wounded were either working for the Afghan medicine factory or the petrol pump near the blast site.

In a text message to Reuters, a person calling himself a spokesman for the Taliban claimed that the attack was the work of one of their members.

The Taliban have carried out similar attacks against government and security forces in the past.

Violence across Afghanistan last year reached its worst levels since the 2001 US-led invasion, despite significant increases in foreign troops.