KABUL, Sept 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - One man was killed Sunday, September 1, 2002, and three people injured - including a British soldier - when a mine placed in a hand-cart exploded in southern Kabul. Also, four Afghans were killed and 18 injured Sunday in a double land mine accident around the U.S.-led coalition's headquarters at Bagram air base.

The blast occurred at 3:30 pm (1100 GMT) outside the former Soviet embassy on the Dahlaman road, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Local police official Major Gul Rahman told AFP at the scene that a man riding past on his bicycle suffered fatal injuries while an Afghan man and woman also suffered shrapnel wounds.

A spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Major James Kelly, said a British soldier suffered minor injuries.

The unidentified trooper was traveling in an armored vehicle that was passing the site.

Rahman said the man, who abandoned the cart appeared to have disappeared. A crater measuring about half a square meter (four square feet) could be seen on the side of the road, which leads to the former Royal Palace.

In another sign of unrest in Afghanistan, a military spokesman told AFP that four local Afghans were killed and 18 injured in a double-land mine ‘accident’.

The Afghans were believed to be working alongside a Danish demining team around the southern edge of the sprawling air base when one triggered a landmine, Sergeant Major Lewis Matson told AFP.

The spokesman said that an ambulance that was sent to the scene then triggered another mine in the area.

Four Afghans were killed and 18 injured in the two incidents, said Matson.

"Twelve of the injured are being treated at the Spanish hospital at Bagram while the others are being treated at the US military hospital on the base," Matson said by telephone from the U.S. Central Command headquarters in Florida.

The area around Bagram air base is littered with thousands of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) after 23 years of fighting in Afghanistan.

Demining teams have been working to clear UXO since the U.S.-supported coalition took control of the base from the ousted Taliban regime last November.

Four Unites States soldiers were killed earlier this year as they attempted to clear UXO near the former Taliban southern stronghold of Kandahar.

The blast is the latest in a series of explosions in Kabul in recent weeks, although previous incidents have not resulted in fatalities.

The blast comes a week after an explosion outside the United Nations main guest house in Kabul which left one person injured. A small bomb also exploded recently outside the communications ministry.

The Turkish commander of ISAF, Major General Akin Zorlu, told reporters last week that renegade groups including followers of al-Qaeda and the Taliban could be trying to spread fear in the Afghan capital.