KABUL - A suicide bomber targeting Italian soldiers building a bridge Saturday instead killed six Afghans, including three children who had gathered to watch the construction work, officials and witnesses said.
The midmorning attack wounded at least nine people, including three of the soldiers, who were building a bridge about 10 kilometres west of Kabul, said Zemeri Bashary, the Interior Ministry spokesman.
Three children were killed and five wounded in the blast, said Abdul Razaq, the chief police official in the Paghman area, where the bombing occurred. Six Afghans died, he said.
Razaq said only the legs of the suicide bomber remained intact. The bomber was not counted in the death toll.
Afghanistan has seen more than 130 suicide attacks this year _ a record number. More than 5,800 people have died in 2007 in insurgency-related violence, also a record, according to figures from Afghan and Western officials. International and Afghan soldiers and police are frequently the target of Taliban suicide attacks.
Canada has lost 73 soldiers and one diplomat since joining the military mission in Afghanistan in 2002.
Witnesses said the Italian soldiers fired their guns into the air after the bombing. Police officials denied the soldiers had fired, and tried to quell rumours that Afghan victims had been hit by bullets.
Gen. Zalmay Oryakhail, a regional police commander, said many of the wounded were hit by ball bearings packed in the bomb, which can cause wounds that look like they were caused by bullets.
However, an Afghan doctor told The Associated Press said one of the dead men had been hit by bullets, as had several of the wounded. He spoke on condition he not be identified, for fear of retribution.
A pharmacist who said he was driving by the bridge just as the bomb went off said he saw two soldiers fire into the air afterward. "I didn't see any soldiers fire at the people,'' said Abdul Qahir.
Officials from NATO's International Security Assistance Force could not be reached for comment after repeated attempts.
Children always gathered at the construction project to watch the soldiers work, said Qahir, explaining why so many children had been killed and wounded. The other Afghan victims had gathered at a nearby food stand, he said.
