More Desperation

The terrorists in Afghanistan are getting desperate too:

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a U.S. military vehicle in southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing himself and wounding four American soldiers, one seriously, the U.S. military said.

The military denied Afghan police and army reports that at least five Americans had been killed in the attack in Mirwais Mina, about 10 km (6 miles) from the city of Kandahar.

Taliban guerrillas claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest in a surge of militant violence in Afghanistan in the run up to parliamentary elections due to be held in September...

The troops were from a U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team based in Kandahar and the blast occurred as they were returning to their base from a patrol, Yonts said.

Another U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara, called it the work of "terrorists who know their cause is lost."

It was the latest in an upsurge of Taliban-linked violence in southern and eastern Afghanistan. Prior to Monday's attack, 13 U.S. soldiers had been killed since March, including three in two other attacks in the past week.

Kandahar, a bastion of the Taliban during their five years in power before being overthrown by U.S.-led forces in late 2001, was the scene of a suicide bomb attack on a mosque on June 1 that killed at least 20 people.

About 150 insurgents have been killed in violence this year, according to U.S. and Afghan government figures. Dozens of government security men have also died in the fighting.