A suicide attack on a NATO foot patrol has left 15 people dead in northern Afghanistan, according to local officials.
The attacker in Wednesday's late morning bombing targeted a foot patrol of Norwegian and US troops walking through a fruit market in Maymana, the capital of northwestern Faryab province.
"A suicide bomber targeted a group of foreign friends" near a park, provincial governor Abdul Haq Shafaq told the AFP news agency of the motorcycle-riding attacker.
Among the dead were four US soldiers, four Afghan police, an Afghan interpreter for the US soldiers and six Afghan civilians including two women and two children, local police sources told Al Jazeera.
Another 30 Afghan civilians and four US soldiers were wounded in the attack.
An on-duty doctor at the Afghan-Turk Hospital in the provincial capital told Afghan media that 21 injured, including Afghans and foreigners, were rushed to the hospital.
The doctor told the Pajhwok Afghan news agency that most of the injured at the hospital were in critical condition.
The NATO forces visited the police headquarters in Faryab before heading to a nearby park to conduct interviews, Shafaq said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The northwestern province, with a majority Turkmen population, shares a border with neighbouring Turkmenistan.
Though Faryab has been one of the more peaceful of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, clashes between government and Taliban forces rendered 12,000 villagers from the Qaysar district internally displaced last year.
Norway contributes about 400 soldiers to the 130,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
Source: Al Jazeera and Agencies
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other sources: 4 US soldiers,4 Afghan cops, 1 interpreter, & 6 civilian including 2 women & 2 children died & 30 others injured
However reports not confirmed yet, ISAF said:
We're aware of reported military/civilian casualties in explosion. Have not released more details as of yet. Under investigation - ISAF
update: +++graphic+++ video:
ISAF official releases:
2012-04-C-010
For Immediate Release
KABUL, Afghanistan (Apr. 4) - Two International Security Assistance Force service members died following an improvised explosive device attack in northern Afghanistan today. It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.
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2012-04-C-010-UPDATE
For Immediate Release
This is an UPDATE to IJC release #2012-04-C-010 sent at 12:07 p.m. today.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Three International Security Assitance Force service members died following an improvised explosive device attack in northern Afghanistan today.
It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.
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