Another suicide bomber has claimed 5 lives this time, including one American GI in Kabul. Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman said they were responsible for the bomb attack. In eight days this is suicide bomber number 3.

The Taliban are also fighting in Oruzgan, where they killed 5 security guards and burned vehicles, and kidnapped ten workers.

Friday, a troop raid on Paktika was attacked by the Taliban. Several civilians were killed there. Military officials are accusing the militants of using civilians as shielding.

Kabul Blast Kills 5, Including G.I.

KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 6 — A suicide car bomber detonated his device next to an American military convoy on the main road leading to the Kabul airport early Saturday, killing one American serviceman and at least four civilians, American and Afghan officials said.

The attack, which came on the sixth anniversary of the American-led invasion in 2001, destroyed the soldier’s vehicle and wounded many people, officials and witnesses said.

“I heard a very big blast and I threw myself to the ground,” said Jamal, 22, who, like many Afghans, goes by only one name. “I then saw the vehicle in the air and it came down and hit another car.” One of the victims was a civilian riding a bike, he said.

A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a telephone interview that the insurgency was responsible for the bombing.

It was the third suicide attack in Kabul in eight days. The Taliban also claimed responsibility for those earlier attacks, which struck Afghan security forces and killed at least 42.

In the southern province of Oruzgan, Taliban fighters attacked a road construction crew working on the main highway that connects the area to Kandahar Province to the south, said Sayed Aqa Saqib, Kandahar’s provincial police chief. The fighters killed five security guards and burned six vehicles, then kidnapped 10 workers, he said.

On Friday, a detachment of Afghan and international troops on a raid in the eastern province of Paktika were attacked by Taliban fighters, the American military command said in a statement. Several Taliban fighters were killed in the ensuing firefight, and so were several civilians, including a woman, a child and several men, the statement said.

The military said it would investigate the deaths, but it accused militants of using civilians as protective cover.

The British Defense Ministry announced the death of Maj. Alexis Roberts, the highest ranking British officer killed in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001, according to news agency reports. Major Roberts was Prince William’s former platoon commander at Sandhurst military academy, the reports said.