KANDAHAR, June 2: Three civilian men riding a motorbike were killed on Friday when a suspected suicide car bomb exploded near a convoy of Canadian and Afghan troops in southern Afghanistan, police said.

The bomb exploded on a stretch of highway about 15 kilometres (nine miles) northeast of Kandahar city, said the police chief of Kandahar province’s Arghandab district, Zamarai.

Initial reports said there was no military target in the area but a provincial government spokesman said later that the bomb exploded as a joint Canadian and Afghan military patrol passed. None of the soldiers was hurt, said the spokesman, Daud Ahmadi.

There have been several suicide blasts in Afghanistan in the past eight months usually carried out by the Taliban movement and aimed at Afghan or foreign security forces.

The Taliban claim to have hundreds of people lined up to carry out suicide attacks.—AFP