Separate roadside bombings in volatile Helmand province today killed at least 26 people, including 21 members of a wedding party and five police officers, Afghan officials said. Also today, the U.S. military reported the death a day earlier of an American soldier in western Afghanistan. That brought the number of U.S. troops killed so far this month to seven, out of a total of 11 Western military fatalities. Violence has been surging in advance of Afghanistan's presidential and provincial assembly elections, which are to be held in two weeks. The vote is only the country's third nationwide election.