A suicide attack hit downtown Kabul early Thursday, causing an unknown number of casualties, a private TV channel said.

Thick smoke was bellowing from an area close to the Interior Ministry and the Indian embassy, a police officer said.

Tolo, a private TV channel, said several people had been killed or wounded and the wall surrounding the embassy had been destroyed.

Kabul has seen a series of suicide attacks in the past two months.

An Afghan provincial official said that US forces killed a former police officer in central Logar province, while 19 Taliban fighters were killed in two separate clashes elsewhere in the country, officials said Saturday.

A suicide attack against convoy of fuel tankers destined for NATO forces in southern Afghanistan killed eight drivers and wounded 21 others, while a NATO soldier was killed in a roadside attack in the same region, officials said Saturday.

A soldier serving under the banner of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed in an attack in southern Afghanistan, the alliance reported Saturday.

The soldier was killed "as a result of a direct fire attack" in the turbulent southern region on Friday, ISAF said in a statement.

Three civilians were wounded Wednesday in a blast triggered by a roadside bomb in Kabul as NATO's highest-level decision-making body, led by its secretary general, was ending a visit to the war-torn country.

The explosion took place near an oil pump station in Kota Sangi, an area in western Kabul after a convoy of NATO forces had passed the area.

A suicide bomber dressed in police uniform detonated his explosives-filled vest Monday in front of a police station in southern Afghanistan, killing at least eight people and wounding several others, a government spokesman said.

The bomber tried to enter the provincial police headquarters in Lashkargah, the capital of Helmand province, but was stopped by security guards, said Daoud Ahmadi, spokesman for Helmand's governor.

Kabul - It was around 6 pm when hospital director Muhammed Hashim Wahaaj left his office in downtown Kabul to go home.

A car followed his vehicle. Wahaaj stopped to let the car pass.

As the car pulled up, a shot rang out, and the bullet hit the 47-year-old in his upper arm.

Three or four men, Wahaaj said, emerged from the car, blindfolded him and tied him up, forced him into the vehicle and had him crouch on the floor.

This event began a painful ordeal of torture and a fear of death for the doctor.

A suicide bomber attacked an Afghan army vehicle in a relatively peaceful western province on Wednesday, killing two army soldiers and wounding three others, defence ministry said.