By Nasrat Shoiab, AFP
A suicide car bomber rammed a convoy of the NATO-led force near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, killing two soldiers, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said.

The bomb exploded near tents of Kuchi nomads, killing 15 of their camels and leaving the road coated in blood, an AFP reporter at the scene said on Monday.

"There has been a suicide vehicle attack just east of Kandahar city ... on an ISAF convoy," Squadron Leader Jason Chalk told AFP. "Two ISAF soldiers have been killed."

The force of 31,000 soldiers drawn from 37 nations does not release the nationalities of its casualties, leaving that to the home country. Most of the troops in Kandahar are Canadians or Dutch.

Police said another NATO soldier was wounded, along with a Kuchi nomad, but ISAF could not immediately confirm this.

"Two NATO soldiers have been killed," Kandahar provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai told AFP, adding "one NATO soldier and a Kuchi are wounded."

Chunks of a minibus that had been carrying the bomb were flung across the road, along with pieces of the attacker's body.

The site of the blast was quickly sealed off by Afghan and Canadian troops and fire trucks washed down the road as investigation teams collected human remains and parts of the bomb.

Military helicopters and ambulances evacuated the dead and the wounded.

Kandahar has seen the most of a spate of suicide bombings in Afghanistan this year, blamed on the insurgent Taliban movement that rose to power from Kandahar province in 1996 before being driven from power five years later.

The attack came a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant in the eastern province of Paktika, killing 15 Afghans and wounding about 25 more.

Most of the casualties were soldiers with a militia -- hired by US forces to assist with patrols and searches -- which has a base in the area.

The Taliban launched an insurgency against the government after being driven from power in late 2001 by a US-led coalition. Their campaign features regular suicide and roadside bombings.

The violence peaked this year with daily attacks and full-scale battles claiming scores of lives and taking many of the ISAF nations by surprise, with some saying the fighting was the most intense they had seen in decades.

About 120 foreign soldiers have died in combat in Afghanistan in 2006, up from just over 70 last year. One died on Saturday in Uruzgan province in clashes that the NATO force said killed 50 rebels.

About 3,700 people have been killed altogether in the unrest this year -- four times more than last year -- with rebels accounting for most of the toll. Of the total, about 1,000 casualties were civilians, according to Human Rights Watch.

After a lull of several weeks, Taliban-linked violence has surged in the past few days.

The new wave of violence comes ahead of a NATO summit in Latvia Tuesday and Wednesday, expected to focus on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, where commanders have calls for extra troops and equipment.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to use the summit to press his allies to do more, with British troops taking a hammering in the province of Helmand.

"The credibility of NATO ... rests on us doing everything we can to help the people of Afghanistan in their search away from the Taliban," he said last week.

US President George W. Bush told Afghan President Hamid Karzai in a telephone call Saturday the United States would "reiterate its commitment at the NATO summit to the strengthening of security and reconstruction in Afghanistan".

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, called Sunday for the people of Afghanistan to join forces in driving out foreign "occupiers".

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