A cameraman films the body of a suicide attacker


Nearly two dozen Afghan civilians were wounded when two grenades
exploded inside a mosque compound and a bicycle bomb blew up in a city
market, officials said.The violence on Wednesday came a day after
bomb blasts around Afghanistan killed at least 50 people in the
deadliest day for civilians this year, as Taliban insurgents and other
militants ramp up violence across the country.The Taliban summer
offensive coincides with Afghan police and soldiers taking on more
responsibility for security while international forces start to
withdraw.Separately, Nato reported that one of its service
members had been killed on Wednesday in an insurgent attack in the east.
Nato did not disclose the nationality of the soldier or provide any
more details. So far this year, 285 international troops have been
killed in Afghanistan.At least nine worshippers were wounded when
the grenades exploded during morning prayers at a mosque in Baghi Sara,
said the Khost police chief, Sardar Mohammad Zazai. One exploded inside
the mosque and the other went off in a courtyard outside. The third
failed to detonate.Zazai blamed Taliban insurgents for the
attack. "This was the work of the enemy," he said. "It cannot be a
private dispute. Why would anyone be so angry to throw grenades in a
mosque
while people are praying?"He said many of the worshippers were Afghans
who work at the nearby US post, Forward Operating Base Salerno.

A
Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, issued a statement that did not
acknowledge the mosque attack but claimed an insurgent suicide bomber
had attacked a US base in Khost, causing several American casualties.A
spokesman for the Nato military coalition said there had been no attack
on the Salerno base, which is close to the mosque in Baghi Sara.
Lieutenant Colonel Hagen Messer said the American personnel at the base
reported hearing gunfire from the mosque but Afghan police were
investigating.At least 14 people, including four women and a
policeman, were injured when explosives set up on a bicycle exploded at a
market in the city of Herat while people were shopping for a
forthcoming Muslim holiday, said Noor Khan Nekzad, a spokesman for the
provincial police.The latest violence follows a particularly
bloody day for Afghanistan. Suicide bombers launched multiple attacks in
remote Nimroz province in south-western Afghanistan near the Iranian
border on Tuesday, killing dozens of people, including shoppers buying
sweets for a Muslim holiday. The bombings left charred and smouldering
bits
of cookies and dried fruit among the bodies on the ground.A separate
market bombing later on Tuesday, in Kunduz in the north, killed 10
people including five children.

And
in the eastern province of Paktika, a car hit a roadside bomb. Four
children died in the blast, the provincial spokesman Mokhlis Afghan
said, bringing Tuesday's death toll to 50 – 11 police and 39 civilians.
At least 110 people were wounded in total.The Taliban and their
allies are stepping up their assaults in a display of force that often
results in civilian carnage. Militants are especially trying to weaken
the still-developing Afghan security forces, who are to assume control
across their homeland in 28 months, when most foreign combat troops will
have left.The Taliban "want to expand their influence – show
that they are everywhere," said the Afghan political analyst Jawid
Kohistani. "They want to show that the Afghan police are not strong
enough, so they are targeting the security forces and the government."General
John Allen, the top commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan,
said Tuesday's attacks were "acts of intentional mass murder"."By
targeting innocent civilians in populated areas, the insurgents have
again shown they will kill non-combatants without hesitation to advance
their backward-looking plans for Afghanistan," Allen said in a
statement. "Once again, I call on [Afghan Taliban leader] Mullah Omar to
rein in his murderers. His intentions not to target civilians are
hollow."In past statements, Omar has asked his fighters to avoid
civilian casualties. In one message in 2010, for instance, he said: "Pay
attention to the life and property of the civilians so that … your
jihad activities will not become a cause for destruction of property and
loss of life of people."The UN reported last week that civilian
deaths were lower in the first six months of 2012 than in the first half
of 2011 but that an onslaught of summer attacks from insurgents were
threatening
to reverse that trend.In all, 1,145 civilians were killed in
Afghanistan between January and June of this year, according to the UN
report.