A bomb killed a US soldier in Afghanistan yesterday as the capital stepped up security measures after twin car bomb attacks blamed on al-Qaeda and another incident that police said had left nine people dead.

The soldier was killed and another was injured when a home-made bomb hit their vehicle in restive southeastern Paktika province, the US military said in a statement. Two Afghan soldiers and a civilian were also wounded.

The statement did not say who was behind the attack but similar ones have been blamed on Taliban Fighters.

The soldier became the 88th American serviceman to be killed this year in the US-led operation to the country. More than 50 of them died in hostile action, with this year the deadliest for the US military since it arrived.

At least two soldiers from a Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) of nearly 10,000 peacekeepers have also been killed in attacks this year.

One of them, a German soldier, was among nine people police said were killed in a series of attacks in the capital Kabul on Monday.

The dead did not include two attackers who rammed explosives-laden vehicles into two separate Isaf convoys on a key road between the capital and the eastern city of Jalalabad, police said.

PHOTO CAPTION

Afghans look at a burning vehicle at a blast site in Kandahar, Afghanistan November 16, 2005. (REUTERS)