Five civilians killed in Afghan suicide bomb

KABUL: Five civilians including two children died in a suicide bombing near a government office in Afghanistan Monday as security forces elsewhere finally ended a 36-hour Taliban stand-off in a major city.

The deaths came in Laghman province, east of the capital Kabul, when a suicide bomber targeted NATO and Afghan troops as they returned from meeting local leaders.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack which did not kill any soldiers.

In the city of Kandahar, life was returning to normal after troops late Sunday killed the final member of a heavily-armed 28-man Taliban cell which launched a wave of attacks on government targets over the weekend.

President Hamid Karzai issued a condemnation of all recent attacks, saying they showed the "desperation" of the Taliban, who he accused of "trying to hide their defeats by killing innocent people." (AFP)