21 slain in Afghanistan violence

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN —  Roadside bombs and military operations in Afghanistan killed 21 people, including a coalition soldier and 14 Taliban fighters, officials said Wednesday.

A roadside bomb hit a U.S.-led coalition vehicle in the eastern province of Khowst, killing a soldier and an Afghan interpreter, the coalition said. The soldier’s nationality was not released, but most troops in the east are American. Two other soldiers were wounded.

A roadside bomb elsewhere in the province killed two Afghan security guards working for a U.S. military base, the Defense Ministry said.

Police in Khowst killed a would-be suicide bomber trying to enter a police checkpoint with hand grenades Tuesday, said Wazir Pacha, a spokesman for Khowst’s provincial police chief.

In the southern province of Helmand, Afghan and foreign troops killed eight suspected Taliban fighters Tuesday in the Musa Qala area, the Defense Ministry said.

Five other militants were killed in separate incidents when roadside bombs they were planting exploded prematurely, it said, and Taliban militants killed an Afghan army officer and wounded another.

A roadside bomb in the south killed two border policemen in Kandahar province, said Gen. Abdul Razik.

Afghanistan saw a record level of violence in 2007, with more than 6,500 people killed, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Western and Afghan officials.

Some of the worst violence took place in Helmand, the world’s largest poppy-growing region.