KABUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has faced 56 suicide attacks in the post-Taliban Afghanistan so far this year, a statement of the multinational force said Thursday.

    "Tuesday's suicide attack in Lashkar Gah brings the total number of attacks this year excluding those in east to 56," the statement added.

    Three police and 15 civilians were killed in Tuesday's suicide attack in Helmand's provincial capital Lashker Gah and 18 others got wounded while another bomb attack on the same day near capital city Kabul killed two including a NATO soldier.

    The deadly attacks, the statement added, had claimed the lives of 171 people including civilians in addition to giving end to the lives of the suicide attackers.

    "These 56 indiscriminate suicide attacks have killed 131 Afghans, 27 Afghan security personnel and 13 international soldiers," the statement further said.

    All the 56 suicide attackers were killed in the explosions, it added.

    It did not give the number of suicide attacks targeted NAT0-ledISAF forces in the previous years in Afghanistan.

    NATO's operation covers the volatile southern provinces of Kandahar, Uruzgan, Helmand, Zabul and western provinces as well as north of Afghanistan while the U.S.-led coalition forces are engaged in the east and east-central provinces of the country. Enditem