Unrest kills 17 in Afghanistan

June 6, 2009

KABUL (AFP) –

A suicide bomb rocked an Afghan town bordering Pakistan Saturday, killing four people, as (resistance)-linked unrest claimed the lives of another 13, including a foreign soldier, authorities said.

The suicide blast, detonated by a man on a bomb-filled motorbike, tore through a busy bus station in the southern town of Spin Boldak, police said.

"Including the suspect, five were killed and eight were wounded," said the Kandahar province border police chief, Jawad Ahmad.

However, the interior ministry said three people -- a man, a woman and a child -- were killed in the suicide attack, without explaining discrepancy.

Eleven were wounded including five children, the ministry said, adding that the device had exploded before the bomber reached his target.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack but militants allied to the extremist Taliban militia, which has carried out scores of suicide attacks, are active in southern Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan.

Also on Saturday, a soldier in a NATO-led force operating against Taliban insurgents was killed in a "hostile incident," the International Security Assistance Force said in a statement that gave no further details.

It did not give the nationality of the dead soldier or details of the incident. Most of the troops in the south are Americans, British or Canadians.

Elsewhere, Taliban militants ambushed a private security company in the southwestern province of Nimroz, killing three armed guards and wounding one, provincial governor Ghulam Dastagir Azad said.

"The Afghan army and US-led coalition forces went to the area for their support and killed three Taliban and wounded five," he added.

There has been a spate of deadly insurgent attacks recently on convoys that ferry goods across the country, including to bases of the nearly 70,000 foreign troops deployed to help the Afghan government.

Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed two "opposition commanders" in the southern province of Kandahar on Friday, the interior ministry said in a statement that did not give details of the men.

Another four militants were killed in incidents in Farah province in the south and Paktika in the east, officials said.

Attacks and battles have surged in recent weeks as troops try to clamp down on insurgents ahead of August 20 elections and after the extremists vowed to step up their campaign.

There are fears the violence will disrupt the elections, an important test for international efforts to bring democracy to Afghanistan.

The Taliban were in government for five years until 2001, when they were toppled in a US-led invasion weeks after the September 11 attacks on the United States, blamed on the Al-Qaeda network, which had bases in Afghanistan.

NATO soldier among 19 killed in Afghan violence - Summary

DPA, Sat, 06 Jun 2009  

Kabul -

A NATO soldier was killed in an attack in southern Afghanistan, while three civilians, two Afghan soldiers, three private security guards and nine Taliban militants were killed elsewhere in the country, officials said Saturday. The NATO soldier was killed in a "hostile incident" in the volatile southern region on Saturday, the alliance said in a statement, but did not disclose the nationality of the soldier.

Meanwhile, a suicide attack took place in Spin Boldak district in southern Kandahar province, near the Pakistani border Saturday morning when a man was trying to park an explosive-filled motorbike near a hotel in the main market of the district, police spokesman Jawad Ahmad said, citing witnesses.

"It was not clear if the man was a suicide bomber, or if he was only using it as a roadside bomb," he said, adding that the blast killed the suspected bomber and three civilians.

Eight others including five children, two women and a man were wounded in the blast and were taken to a hospital in the district.

No group took responsibility for Saturday's bombing but Taliban militants, who have waged a nearly eight-year insurgency against Afghan and international forces have been behind such attacks in the past.

In south-western Nimruz province, Taliban fighters ambushed a convoy of Afghan private security guards in Delaram area of the province, killing three security personnel, Ghulam Dastagir Azaad, the provincial governor said.

Separately, a soldier was killed and another was wounded when their vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb in Domanda district of south-eastern province of Khost on Saturday morning, General Mohammad Asrar, an army commander in the region said.

The army also killed eight (alleged Taliban fighters) including an Arab fighter in Sabari district of Khost province on Friday, the Defence Ministry said in a statement issued Saturday.

One more fighter was killed and two others were wounded in a separate clash in the neighbouring province of Paktika on late Friday, it said.

The ministry statement also said that another soldier was killed and 15 others were wounded by separate roadside bombs in the past two days.

Meanwhile, two security personnel guarding a United Nations office in northern Kunduz province were wounded overnight, when a group of Taliban fighters attacked the building in Say-Darak area of the provincial capital, Mohammad Omar, the provincial governor said.

The Taliban fighters targeted the building of UN Food and Agriculture Organization with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire, he said, adding that the attackers fled the area when the a police unit was deployed to the area.

Unlike other provinces in the relatively peaceful northern region, Kunduz has seen a series of Taliban-led attacks in the past months. The Taliban fighters have vowed to expand their battlegrounds from eastern and southern regions to country north and west.

The bulk of 21,000 additional US troops, which are scheduled to arrive in the county by summer this year, will be deployed to southern region, which is the main hub for Taliban insurgents in the country.

More than 70,000 international troops deployed from 42 nations are currently stationed in Afghanistan.

Three children among 34 killed in Afghanistan

by Sharif Khoram Sharif Khoram –

Fri Jun 5, 2009, 1:23 pm ET

KABUL (AFP) –

Three Afghan children were killed Friday by a mortar left over from a battle between police and Taliban, as bomb attacks and clashes left 31 more people dead, most of them (allegedly Talliban fighters according to AFP), officials said.

There has been a steady increase in attacks and clashes across Afghanistan in recent weeks as US military reinforcements move into the south and Afghan forces target Taliban fighters hotspots ahead of August 20 presidential elections.

The children, aged four to 10, were killed Friday when they touched a mortar shell left over from an exchange of fire the previous day between Taliban fighters and police in the central province of Ghazni, police said.

Another child was wounded, said provincial police chief Khial Baz Sherbaz.

Separately two roadside bombs exploded an hour apart in the eastern province of Nangarhar on Friday, killing six policemen, provincial government spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai told AFP.

Also in Nangarhar, a man was killed late Thursday by a bomb he was trying to plant inside a university faculty, the official said.

A remote-controlled bomb blast in the southern province of Uruzgan Friday killed two policemen, one of them an officer, while they were on foot patrol, deputy provincial police chief Mohammad Gulab said.

Police in the southern province of Kandahar announced meanwhile that another policeman and a civilian driver were killed in a bomb attack on their vehicle late Thursday.

No one claimed the responsibility for the bombings. Most of the almost-daily bomb blasts in the country, however, are linked to an insurgency being waged by the extremist Taliban, who were in government from 1996 to 2001.

Heavy fighting erupted in the troubled eastern province of Khost when militants attacked a compound where foreign troops were based, police said.

The bodies of 15 alleged Taliban fighters remained at the site in the Sabari district, said the area's (security) chief, named only Ghazoddin.

A policeman and a militia soldier contracted to the US military were also killed, he said.

The international forces sent attack helicopters to the battle, he said.

A Taliban spokesman confirmed the militia was involved, saying 100 men had attacked the district.

Meanwhile, police killed three Taliban fighters in the neighbouring province of Paktya overnight, the provincial government said.