Roadside bombings wound six people in E Afghanistan

KHOST, Afghanistan, Nov. 19 -- A soldier with the U.S.-led Coalition Forces was injured as his vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Afghanistan's eastern Paktia province on Thursday, spokesman for the provincial administration said.

"A roadside bomb planted by militants struck a military convoy of coalition forces in Mamozi area of Zurmat district at around noon. As a result a foreign soldier was wounded," Samon told Xinhua.

Like many Afghans who use one name, Samon also added that a military vehicle was damaged in the incident.

In a separate incident, five people including a police official got wounded, as a bomb went off in a bazaar in Zurmat district in the same province.

"The explosion occurred at around 1:30 p.m. local time in a district bazaar, wounding four civilians and a police constable," Gulad Shah, the district chief of Zurmat, told Xinhua.

The incidents occurred on the same day as incumbent Afghan President Hamid Karzai was sworn in for the second five-year term in Kabul amid tight security.

In the swearing ceremony at his fortified Presidential Palace attended by hundreds of Afghan and foreign guests including Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Afghan President said that his country's National Security Forces (ANSF) should take the lead of tackling insurgency in the post-Taliban country and that the ANSF should be able to take the responsibility of security in the next five years.

Currently over 100,000 U.S. and NATO forces have been stationed in the militancy-hit country, helping Afghan forces combat Taliban-led insurgency.