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Afghan fighting leaves 41 dead

KABUL, Afghanistan - A string of bombings and gunbattles reported around Afghanistan Saturday killed 41 people and left at least six wounded, including two foreigners hurt in a suicide bombing near the capital.

Insurgent violence is running at its highest level since U.S. forces invaded the country in 2001 to oust the hard-line Islamic Taliban rulers, who had harbored al-Qaida leaders following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Most of the violence is concentrated in southern or eastern Afghanistan, where insurgents staged several attacks Saturday, but there have been occasional attacks on Afghan security forces and foreign targets in Kabul.

A suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a convoy of two four-wheel drive Land Cruisers on a main road leading out of the capital Saturday, said Ali Shah Paktaiwal, chief of criminal investigations in the city. Interior Ministry spokesman Zemerai Bashary said two foreigners and four Afghans were injured. He said he did not know the nationalities of the foreigners or the extent of their injuries.

In Ghazni province in the east, police killed 24 militants, two of whom were believed to be Arabs, over the last 24 hours, local police chief Ali Shah Ahmadzai said.

Airstrikes defended

British troops battling Taliban insurgents in southern Helmand province Friday were hit by a U.S. bomb that killed three soldiers and wounded two after they called for air support.

Coalition forces on Saturday defended their reliance on air power in the wake of the deaths, which came amid growing Afghan concerns about civilian deaths from U.S. airstrikes.

Col. Martin Schelleis, chief spokesman of NATO's 37-nation strong mission in the country, said, "You cannot do it all with ground troops. Air support is an integral part of the operation."

Schelleis said an inquiry would examine possible technical, human or procedural errors.

[Last modified August 26, 2007, 01:32:52]