Attacks across Afghanistan kill 10, including 3 NATO service members and 5 Afghan policemen

A string of attacks across the Afghanistan has killed 10, including three NATO service members and five of the Afghan policemen, officials said on Wednesday.

A suicide car bomber blew himself up Wednesday afternoon at a bazaar in the Khost province in the country's east, killing a policeman and an Afghan soldier, provincial police chief Abdul Hakim Eshaqzai said. Four others were injured in the attack in the Dwa Mandala district.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the insurgent group was responsible for the attack, which targeted the foreigners. He said 14 people were killed and nine others were wounded, but the Taliban regularly exaggerate casualties caused by their attacks.

In the north, four policemen were killed in an ambush Tuesday night as they were driving through Imam Sahib district along the border with the Tajikistan, said Muhbobullah Sayedi, a spokesman for the governor Kunduz province. Violence is on the rise in northern Afghanistan, where pockets of the Taliban insurgents are increasingly targeting government workers.

NATO on Wednesday confirmed the deaths of three coalition service members. Two died in the south — one in a bomb blast Tuesday and another during an insurgent attack on Wednesday. The third coalition service member died Wednesday in fighting in the east.

So far this year, 625 U.S. and international troops have died in the Afghanistan, according to a count by The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, at least one de-miner was killed and another was wounded Wednesday morning in Chaparhar district of Nangarhar province when the de-mining team's vehicle hit a roadside bomb, officials from the province said.

Two NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan

Two NATO soldiers and an Afghan government official were killed in the separate attacks across the troubled country, authorities said Tuesday.

The latest deaths brought to 629 the number of foreign soldiers killed so far this year in the Afghan war, according to an AFP count.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said one soldier was killed in an insurgent attack on Monday in the country's east, and another in the south by a bomb on Tuesday.

Their nationalities were not released and there were no further details.

AFP's tally is based on a count kept by the independent website icasualties.org, which also logs deaths of soldiers evacuated out of Afghanistan for treatment of injuries.

NATO and the United States have more than 150,000 troops deployed in the Afghanistan to fight the insurgency, led by Taliban militants who have stretched their presence to most parts of the country.

On Tuesday, a district governor was killed in another Taliban-style bomb explosion in eastern Paktia province, local authorities said.

Shwak district chief, Ali Abad, was on his way to work when his vehicle struck the device and was killed on the spot, provincial spokesman, Rohullah Samoon told AFP.

"The district chief was martyred in the blast," Samoon said.

Home-made bombs or improvised explosive devices are weapons of choice for the Taliban and other militants.

International and Afghan forces are currently engaged in a major offensive around Kandahar, the largest city in southern Afghanistan, aimed at pushing out the insurgents to bring an end to the long war.