Afghan blast kills 25 on bus

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack. “The criminals who did this are the enemies of Muslims,’’ he said in a statement.

Also yesterday, officials reported that three more international service members were killed — two Italians and an American. The Italians died yesterday in a roadside bombing north of Herat, the Italian Defense Ministry said. The American was killed Tuesday in the south, NATO said.

July has already been one of the deadliest months for US troops in the nearly nine-year Afghan war, with 59 service members killed. That is just shy of the 60 who died in June — the deadliest month for US forces. Altogether, 82 NATO troops have died in July. In June, 103 NATO forces were killed.

The rising death toll is occurring as US forces continue the search for a missing Navy sailor believed captured last week by Taliban forces when he and a colleague drove into an insurgent-held area of eastern Afghanistan. One of the sailors was killed in a firefight with militants, and the Taliban have said they seized the other.

US forces have pushed into southern Taliban strongholds in recent months and weeks in an attempt to squeeze insurgents out of the area where they have long functioned as a de-facto government. Along with the surge, attacks on military forces and Afghan supporters of the government have increased. Many civilians have also been killed or wounded in events such as yesterday’s bus bombing or caught up in the crossfire.

Yesterday, an Afghan villager was killed by US soldiers in the volatile Arghandab Valley, a strategic area near Kandahar City. An Associated Press journalist who witnessed the shooting said soldiers approached a compound near where they had found a hidden bomb. Someone fired at the Americans, who shot back, killing a man who the troops said was carrying a rifle.

The villagers insisted that he was not a Taliban member and maintained they did not hear gunfire, although the AP journalist said bullets were flying near the troops.

On Monday, the Afghan government said 52 civilians, including women and children, died when a NATO rocket struck a village in southern Afghanistan last week — a report the international coalition has disputed.