Bomber strikes Afghan border town

At least three people have been killed in a suicide attack in an Afghan town on the border with Pakistan, local police say. The blast occurred on Saturday when a man detonated an explosives-packed motorbike he was riding in the southern town of Spin Boldak, the Kandahar province border police chief said. The explosion also wounded eight passers-by, including two women and two children, Jawad Ahmad, the police chief said. "Including the suspect, five were killed and eight were wounded," he said. But a separate Al Jazeera source said that five of those injured in the attack were children. Ahmad said that the bomber pulled up alongside a restaurant at a bus station before the motorbike blew up. He said the bomber had been targeting a police but detonated before reaching his target. Other reports said the blast had been close to a taxi rank. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack but fighters allied to the Taliban are active in southern Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan. The town of Spin Boldak, which is near a busy border crossing with Pakistan, has come under regular attack with strikes most often directed at the security forces although more civilians are usually killed. The Taliban were in government for five years until 2001 when they were toppled in a US-led invasion weeks after the September 11 attacks on the US.