3 NATO troops killed; Afghan provincial health chief dies in bomb blast at his clinic

3 NATO troops killed; doctor dies in clinic blast

KABUL, Afghanistan — Three NATO service members were killed in attacks and the head of a provincial health department died after a bomb planted in his private clinic exploded in northern Afghanistan.

The international coalition reported the three deaths Tuesday, bringing to at least 67 the number of its troops killed in the Afghan war so far this month.

NATO said a U.S. troop died Tuesday following an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan, but did not disclose further details.

British defense officials said a member of the 40 Commando Royal Marines was shot Tuesday during fighting in the Sangin district of southern Helmand province. Another member of the same unit died Monday in a blast in Sangin, officials said.

Dr. Azizullah Safari was walking up to his second-floor clinic when a bomb exploded under the stairwell on Tuesday, said Muhbobullah Sayedi, a spokesman for the governor of Kunduz province.

In restive southern Afghanistan, one child was killed Tuesday when a bomb planted on a donkey went off at a checkpoint in Kandahar, said Qayum Khan, chief of investigation for the Kandahar police department. He said another child and an elderly man were wounded in the blast.

NATO and Afghan forces captured a senior Taliban figure in an overnight raid, the international force said. The man had recently been appointed the Taliban’s finance chief in Baghlan, a northern province, NATO said.

He was captured in Helmand along with two other suspected insurgents after a tip-off that he was staying in a compound in Nah-e Saraj district.

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Associated Press writer Mirwais Khan contributed to this report from Kandahar