Kabul, - Two civilians were killed in a suicide attack that targeted a convoy of international troops in Ghazni city on the Kabul-Kandahar highway, officials said Tuesday.

Ghazni police chief Khial Baz Shirzai told the German Press Agency dpa that a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden car as a military convoy of foreign forces drove through Qala-e-Ashraf in the outskirts of the city.

Faridullah Jan, who witnessed the incident, told dpa that the bomber blew up his vehicle when the convoy was around 50 metres from it.

Two passersby were killed but no foreign soldiers were harmed, the police chief said.

Doctors in the city's Public Health Hospital confirmed that they had received the bodies of two civilians after the attack.

A Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, however, said 15 foreign soldiers were killed in the attack.

Ghazni, some 130 kilometers south-west of Kabul, is one of the most volatile provinces of Afghanistan. Several districts in the province are run by the Taliban and the government controls only the district headquarters, local residents say.

Attacks by the Taliban have been on the rise in recent weeks as Afghanistan moves towards the presidential elections set for August. (dpa)