Bombs in volatile district kill 12 Afghans, injure U.S. troops

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KABUL, Afghanistan — Two suicide bombings in a restive province near Kabul on Saturday killed 12 Afghans — eight civilians and four police officers — and injured a small number of U.S. troops, military and local officials said.

The blasts took place in the Sayedabad district of Wardak province, outside the same U.S. base where a massive blast last September injured around 80 American soldiers. The district was also the scene of the war’s worst single-day loss of U.S. lives when an insurgent-fired rocket downed a Chinook helicopter in August 2011, killing 31 Americans and seven Afghans.

The first of Saturday’s two explosions took place about 5 a.m. at the entrance to Combat Outpost Sayedabad, according to authorities in Wardak. The attacker was a suicide bomber on foot, said Abdul Qayoom Baqizoi, the provincial police chief. A short time later a suicide bomber set off a powerful truck bomb in a bazaar nearby, shattering windows in buildings and damaging vehicles.

In addition to the eight civilians and four police officers killed, about four dozen other civilians were injured, along with 10 members of the Afghan security forces, the police chief said. He identified the injured NATO troops as Americans.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force confirmed the attack but did not disclose the nationalities of those who were wounded. A spokesman said their injuries were not serious.

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-- Laura King and Hashmat Baktash