Six children die as Taliban miss target

The blast, near a market in Dand district to the west of Kandahar city, was aimed at a regional official being taken to work in the truck. He escaped unharmed.

It fits the pattern of Taliban attacks. As additional Western forces have poured into the group's strongholds in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, the insurgents have mounted a counter-campaign of bombings and assassinations at those affiliated with the Afghan government.

The Taliban also attacked a second government official in the east. The convoy of a presidential adviser was hit by a remote-controlled bomb hidden in a rickshaw as it was driving through Jalalabad city. He was wounded but not seriously.

In eastern Nuristan province, Nato and Afghan troops attacked two villages that had been held by the Taliban, killing more than 30 as they secured the Bachancha and Badmuk villages.

The attacks were part of an ongoing effort to secure the area around the village of Barg-e-Matal which has shuttled between government and insurgent control in recent months.

It came as the Ministry of Defence confirmed the deaths of two British servicemen killed in southern Afghanistan in separate incidents on Sunday. Next of kin have been informed.

A soldier, from 1st Battalion Scots Guards, was killed by small arms fire in the Lashkar Gah District of Helmand Province while a Royal Marine, from 40 Commando, died in an explosion while on foot patrol in the Sangin District of Helmand Province.

The British death toll in the Afghan campaign since 2001 now stands at 327.