Bombings kill 11 people in Afghanistan

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KABUL, Mar 21 (AP): Two separate bombings killed 11 people in eastern Afghanistan Saturday, officials said, the latest attacks near the country's volatile border with Pakistan.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a NATO soldier was killed in a "hostile incident" in the country's south, the military alliance said Saturday.
A suicide bomber in a car blew himself up at a police checkpoint in Chaparhar district of eastern Nangarhar province where officers were searching cars, killing six people, including five civilians and one policeman, said police spokesman Gafor Khan. The blast also wounded four civilians and a policeman, he said.
South of Nangarhar in Khost province, a bombing killed five people near a shrine as they celebrated the Persian new year, said the provincial police spokesman, Wazir Pacha. The blast on the outskirts of Khost city wounded five people, he said.
The militant Taliban group that ruled over Afghanistan in 1990s practices an extreme version of Islam and discouraged people from celebrating the Persian new year, known as Nowruz, when they controlled the country. Many Taliban and al-Qaida militants sought sanctuary in Pakistan after the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan and have been staging cross-border attacks.
The NATO fatality occurred Friday, the same day four Canadian troops serving with the NATO-led force were killed in two separate explosions, the alliance said.
The Saturday statement did not disclose the victim's nationality or the site of the incident.
Southern Afghanistan is the centre of the Taliban-led insurgency. Thousands of new US troops soon will be joining British, Canadian and Dutch forces trying to reverse gains by the Taliban and expand governance and security.