KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Jan 16 (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed six civilians and wounded three in the Sangin district of Afghanistan's violent southern Helmand province, the provincial governor's office said on Sunday.
Sangin district is one of the main battlefields in the intensifying fight between Afghan and NATO-led forces and Taliban insurgents in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar.
Six people, including a woman and child, were killed when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb planted in a dirt road in Sangin on Saturday, said Dawood Ahmadi, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand.
Violence across Afghanistan is at its worst since U.S.-backed Afghan forces overthrew the hardline Islamist Taliban in 2001 after they refused to hand over al Qaeda militants, including Osama bin Laden, after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
A recent string of attacks around the country has helped to dispel a belief in a winter lull in fighting. While insurgents normally target Afghan and foreign troops, civilians often bear the brunt of the attacks as they become caught in the crossfire.
The United Nations has said 2,412 civilians were killed and 3,803 wounded between January and October last year -- up 20 percent from 2009.
On Jan. 7, a suicide bomber killed 17 people, including 16 civilians, and wounded 21 others, inside a public bathhouse in neighbouring Kandahar province, the country's worst attack in nearly six months.
A record 711 foreign troops were also killed in 2010, according to monitoring website www.iCasualties.org.
Afghan forces have been hit even harder. The government has said 1,292 Afghan police, 821 Afghan soldiers and 5,225 insurgents were killed.
Separately, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on Sunday Afghan and foreign forces had killed two insurgents in an operation against a Taliban leader in Wardak province, west of Kabul. Two suspected insurgents were also detained in the operation which took place on Saturday. (Reporting by Ismail Sameem and additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi in KABUL; Writing by Matt Robinson) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)) (If you have a query or comment about this story, send an e-mail to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com) (Created by Daniel Magnowski)
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