Bomb hits taxi in Kabul, killing two Afghans

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A bomb exploded near a taxi on a busy Kabul road Tuesday, killing two Afghans, and a U.S. soldier and seven militants died in fighting in the east -- the latest wave of violence threatening Western attempts to rebuild Afghanistan.

The U.S.-led coalition announced it had killed more than 600 Taliban rebels in the past six weeks during an operation with Afghan forces to crush insurgents in the south.

The Afghan government, meanwhile, launched an urgent appeal for more that $75 million to tackle an "imminent food crisis" caused by prolonged drought, particularly in the north and northwest.

Tuesday's bomb in Kabul -- the latest in a series of recent blasts that have rattled nerves in the capital -- killed a man and woman riding in a taxi and wounded four other people, police official Faiz Ahmad Hotaq.

In eastern Kunar province, a U.S. soldier was killed Monday in a gunbattle with militants, coalition spokesman Col. Tom Collins said.

At least 258 members of the U.S. military have died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department.

Seven militants were killed Monday in eastern Paktika province during clashes with coalition soldiers. One coalition soldier was slightly wounded, a coalition statement said.

Violence has escalated sharply in Afghanistan this year as Taliban-led rebels have stepped up attacks, particularly in their former southern heartland, drawing a tough response from Afghan and foreign forces.

More than 10,000 U.S.-led troops have fanned out across the south in an attempt to break the Taliban's hold on the region, as NATO prepares to take over command of security operations there in one of the biggest and most dangerous missions in alliance history.

More than 600 suspected Taliban militants have been killed since Operation Mountain Thrust started June 10, Collins told reporters.

At least 19 coalition soldiers have also been killed in the same period, according to an Associated Press count based on coalition information.

The United States currently has 21,000 troops in Afghanistan, but with NATO bolstering its presence from 9,700 to 16,000, the United States is expected to withdraw several thousand.

The U.S. military also said Tuesday that two American engineer soldiers were seriously wounded in a roadside bomb attack in eastern Khost province. The soldiers were on their way to a road project Sunday between the towns of Khost and Gardez when they were attacked, the military said.

Their wounds were not life-threatening.

Also Tuesday, the Afghan government and United Nations launched an emergency appeal to help the country through a shortfall in this year's wheat harvest due to the prolonged drought. The areas hit hardest include Badghis, Samangan, Takhar, Jawzjan and Faryab provinces, Agriculture Minister Obaidullah Ramin said.

The money would support the "urgent needs" of more than 2.5 million people for six months, a joint statement by the Afghan government and the United Nations said.

Agriculture accounts for 52 percent of the impoverished nation's gross domestic product.

President Hamid Karzai, meanwhile, condemned the fatal shooting of an Afghan doctor and a driver for the international Christian relief and development organization World Vision. The pair were killed Sunday after delivering medicine to Charsada in Ghor province -- a rare attack in a relatively stable region.