Suicide attack kills three in southern Afghanistan

HELMAND, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed two soldiers and a child on Saturday in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand, in an attack targeting an Afghan security forces convoy, the provincial police chief said.

Taliban militants carried out more than 140 suicide attacks in 2007 and have vowed to step up their campaign of suicide bombings this year.

The bomber, who was on foot, detonated his explosives near a convoy carrying Afghan soldiers and police in Marja District.

"Three people were killed including two soldiers and one child," Helmand police chief, Mohammad Hussein Andiwal told Reuters. "Six people were wounded, including two policemen."

Nearly 700 Afghan civilians were killed in the first six months of this year, 255 of them by Afghan government and international troops, the rest by Taliban militants.

(Reporting by Abdul Qudoos; Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Catherine Evans)