Kabul, Sep 27 (DPA) An Afghan cabinet minister survived a suicide attack in Herat province Sunday, but four civilians were killed and 17 people were injured, officials said.
Meanwhile, six NATO-led soldiers, including three French troops and two US service members, were killed in separate incidents elsewhere in the country, the alliance said in a statement.

Energy Minister Mohammad Ismail Khan was on his way to the airport in Afghanistan’s western Herat province when a motorbike laden with explosives detonated near his convoy, Abdul Raouf Ahmadi, a police spokesman for the western region, said.

“Fortunately he (Khan) was not hurt in the attack, but four civilian passers-by were killed,” Ahmadi said, adding that 17 people, including four of Khan’s bodyguards, were wounded in the blast.

Ahmadi had earlier said that blast was triggered by a bomb, which was remotely controlled, but the presidential palace said in a statement later that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the blast and said that Khan was the target of the attack.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack in a statement released by his office, and said that the “enemies of Afghan people try to create obstacles before the freedom and progress of Afghan people by targeting national figures”.

Khan, a former top mujahideen commander in the country’s west, served as governor for Herat province, which borders Iran, before joining the cabinet of President Hamid Karzai.

Meanwhile, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said six of its soldiers were killed in the past 24 hours, though not all in hostile attacks.

Three of the ISAF soldiers were killed in a non-combat incident in the country’s east, the alliance said in a statement. French government in Paris confirmed that the three soldiers were French troops, who were killed in flooding and violent storms near Kabul.

Two US soldiers were killed in a roadside attack and fight with Taliban forces on Saturday, the ISAF statement said, adding that the sixth soldier was killed Sunday in another roadside bomb blast.

Roadside bomb attacks have become a common tactic for Taliban militants, who were driven from power in late 2001 by a US-led military invasion.

The roadside bombings increased in frequency by 60 percent in the first seven months this year in Afghanistan. More than 370 international soldiers killed in Afghanistan so far this year, according to UN report and NATO officials.

Meanwhile, ISAF rejected Taliban’s claim that the rebels downed a NATO aircraft in northern Kunduz province, saying its unmanned aircraft had a hard landing in the province and that it was recovered by the alliance forces.

The Taliban had claimed to have shot down a US military jet in Dashti Archi district. The incident came a day after Afghan police killed 18 Taliban fighters in the district after the militants attacked the district headquarters.