Suicide Bomber Kills 13 in Afghanistan

An Afghan police officer walks past a damaged taxi after a suicide bomber targeted a minibus carrying Afghan soldiers, south of Kabul, Afghanistan on Wednesday, Dec, 5, 2007. The suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a minibus carrying Afghan soldiers south of Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least 13 people and wounding 20, officials and witnesses said. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) (Rafiq Maqbool - AP)

"My other 8-year-old son was also wounded in the same mosque," Akram said.

There has been a spate of attacks in recent months on buses carrying Afghan security forces as they commute to work in the morning.

On Sept. 29, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside an army bus in Kabul, killing 28 soldiers and two civilians. In June, another bomb ripped through a bus carrying police instructors in Kabul, killing 35 people.

Militants have launched more than 133 suicide attacks this year _ a record number. At least 6,200 people have died in insurgency-related violence in 2007, also a record, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Afghan and Western officials.

Suicide attacks frequently target international and Afghan security forces, but most of the casualties are civilian passers-by.

In southern Afghanistan, U.S.-led coalition troops killed several Taliban militants during raids on compounds in Garmser district on Wednesday, the coalition said in a statement.

The troops "targeted an individual believed to be associated with weapons smuggling operations in the province," it said. "While performing a search of one of the compounds, coalition forces killed several armed militants who posed an imminent threat."

Separately, an explosion struck a patrol of NATO-led troops in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, leaving one soldier dead and two others wounded, the alliance said in a statement.

___

Associated Press Writer Rahim Faiez contributed to this report.