A suicide bomber exploded his car beside a US Embassy convoy in Afghanistan's capital March 19, killing a 15-year-old pedestrian and wounding five security guards. The first suicide attack in Kabul since December knocked one armored sport-utility vehicle across Jalalabad Road, the site of more bombings and rocket attacks than any other area in the capital. Two other SUVs also were damaged. A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, told reporters by phone that a Taliban militant from Khost province conducted the attack. The Embassy closed after the attack and issued a warning to Americans in Kabul.

Meanwhile, in the southern province of Kandahar, a roadside bomb killed the Panjwayi district's chief of the criminal division. Also in Panjwayi, a suicide bomber attacked a police team working to eradicate opium poppies, damaging one vehicle but causing no injuries. (AP, March 20)

See our last post on Afghanistan.