Suicide bomb hits German troops in Afghanistan: police

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber hit a convoy of German troops in northern Afghanistan on Monday, killing five children and seriously wounding at least two of the soldiers, a senior police official said.

There were "some fatalities" among the troops, said a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), who declined to give the nationalities of the soldiers. Some civilians had also been killed, he said.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan this year, with the Taliban launching more attacks in more areas. Some 4,000 people have been killed in the conflict this year, a third of them civilians.

But bomb attacks in the relatively peaceful north of the country are rare, with most of the violence centered around the mainly Pashtun south and east of the country.

Germany has around 3,300 soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

(Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Paul Tait)