Kabul: Bomb blasts killed an Afghan child and six security guards today as officials reported that a US-led soldier and several militants were slain in an intensifying Taliban insurgency.

Two other guards were wounded when the roadside bomb blew up their truck at Qarghayi, about 100 kilometres east of Kabul, Laghman province police chief Abdul Karim Omaryar told AFP.

It was not clear if the bomb was newly planted by insurgents or left over from years of war, he said.

In the southern city of Kandahar, a bomb fixed to a bicycle exploded near a busy shrine, killing a child and wounding two other civilians, provincial police chief Sayed Aqa Saqib told AFP.

The target was not clear. Kandahar has experienced a rash of bombings in the past weeks, most of them aimed at Afghan and international security forces.

The foreign soldier was killed "in action" yesterday near the western town of Farah, the US-led coalition said in a statement. It did not provide the soldier s nationality.

There has been heavy fighting in recent days in Farah province, bordering Iran. Afghan officials said international military planes pounded a militant compound there on Wednesday and killed 30 Taliban fighters.

The coalition also reported today that it had killed "several militants" and detained 16 in a mission "to disrupt anti-government operations" in the central province of Ghazni.

Source : PTI