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.

ISAF: Insurgents killed more than 100 civilians last month

The NATO-led command in Afghanistan said insurgent fighters were responsible for the scores of civilian casualties in the October -- more than 100 deaths and 200 injuries.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force, which has been staunchly criticized by the Afghans over the years for civilian casualties during the war, said the latest violence belies senior Taliban claims that the insurgents have protected civilians.

"The insurgency continues to exhibit the striking hypocrisy between their stated objective to protect civilian lives and their actions throughout Afghanistan," Rear Adm. Vic Beck, ISAF spokesman, said Tuesday.

"Their message simply does not match the reality that every day, insurgents are deliberately killing, injuring and intimidating Afghan civilians."

ISAF breaks down the incidents in four categories.

There were 150 examples of "indiscriminate violence," such as roadside bombs and small arms and indirect fire, and 75 examples of "anti-development" incidents, such as attacks on convoys, workers, and bombs set off near a truck and under a bridge.

There were 45 examples of the "imposition of extremist ideology." They include using a mosque as a firing point and deploying children as human shields. Other examples are assassinations in mosques, police kidnappings, bombings in and around schools, and school closings.