Kandahar, May 17:

A bomb fixed to a bicycle killed an Afghan civilian in Kandahar city today, while strikes by international forces killed at least nine insurgents a day earlier, officials said.

The bomb exploded in the troubled southern city as a police vehicle passed by, police officer Faiz Mohammad told AFP from the site. “Police did not suffer any casualty but a civilian passerby was killed and another was injured,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Afghan army said international forces had bombed a Taliban mountain hideout in the southwestern province of Farah yesterday, killing seven rebels.

The defence ministry, which confirmed the operation, said forces captured two Taliban commanders and freed two civilians who were held as hostages in a mountainous

militant hideout.