18 killed in Afghanistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, July 10, 2010 (UPI) --

At least five U.S. soldiers and 11 Shia Pakistanis and an Afghan civilian died Saturday in bombings and ambushes, officials said.

The U.S. military reported a sixth U.S. soldier was killed in an accidental explosion, the BBC said.

Three U.S. soldiers were killed in eastern Afghanistan and two in southern Afghanistan. Two were killed in roadside explosions, and three in apparent ambushes, The New York Times said.

The deaths were part of a rising tide of violence in Afghanistan. NATO reported more coalition soldiers were killed in June than in any other month since the invasion in 2001.

In eastern Afghanistan, gunmen ambushed a bus carrying Pakistani Shia tribesmen between Kurram and Peshawar, the BBC reported. The bus was on a route that avoids a dangerous highway in Pakistan by making a detour into Afghanistan.

In Kandahar, a man was killed when he drove by as a motorcycle rigged to explode blew up. The explosion also damaged a shopping center.

Australian soldier killed by blast in Afghanistan

Sat Jul 10, 6:43 am ET

DARWIN, Australia –

The death of another Australian soldier will not change the country's commitment to the war in Afghanistan, the prime minister said Saturday.

Julia Gillard made the remarks after the announcement of the death of 23-year-old Pvt. Nathan Bewes, the sixth Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan in just over a month.

Bewes was killed just before midnight Friday by a homemade bomb. A second soldier was wounded.

Australia has some 1,500 troops in Afghanistan alongside NATO forces. The death takes Australia's military death toll in Afghanistan to 17.

Five US soldiers die fighting Taliban in Afghanistan

by Lynne O'Donnell Lynne O'donnell –

Sat Jul 10, 2010, 10:21 am ET

KABUL (AFP) –

Five US soldiers were killed Saturday in separate incidents while battling the Taliban-led insurgency (resistance to the NATO occupation forces) in Afghanistan, as NATO said its troops had accidentally killed six Afghan civilians.

Three of the soldiers died in eastern Afghanistan and two were killed in the south, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

A sixth US serviceman also died Saturday, in an accidental explosion, an ISAF official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The six deaths bring to 352 the toll of international soldiers in the Afghan war this year, according to a tally kept by AFP based on the icasualties.org website.

It was the highest one-day toll since the deaths of ten foreign soldiers on June 21, which equalled the worst day of the year for international forces.

An ISAF statement said the causes of death in the east were small-arms fire, a home-made bomb attack and an unspecified "insurgent attack".

The two soldiers who died in the south were involved in separate attacks with homemade bombs, known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

US soldiers are known to be involved in a major operation in Kunar Province, on Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan, though ISAF would not confirm that the deaths in the east were related to the offensive.

While it is ISAF policy not to reveal the nationalities of soldiers, an official who asked not to be identified said all were Americans.

 ISAF earlier said its troops had killed six civilians accidentally, a day after reporting that six Afghan soldiers had died in a "friendly fire" incident.

Civilian casualties are an incendiary topic with Afghans, who increasingly regard the presence of international troops in their country as the main cause of violence that has wracked Afghanistan for almost nine years.

ISAF said "artillery fire from an ISAF unit killed six civilians and wounded several others in Jani Khel on Thursday", referring to a district of Paktia province, south of Kabul.

The dead had been removed before ISAF units had arrived on the scene, the force said, and so it was not immediately clear that people had been killed by what it said were "errant rounds".

That statement came after ISAF said a helicopter patrol in southern Ghazni province had opened fire on a group of Afghan soldiers on Tuesday, mistaking them for militants planting bombs by a roadside.

While reports of friendly fire incidents are not common in Afghanistan, they add to a perception that foreign forces do not take enough care to avoid killing Afghans, military or civilian.

Command of the 140,000 troops in Afghanistan has just been taken over by US General David Petraeus who is under some pressure to change the rules of engagement, as some soldiers believe they restrict defensive action.

Petraeus has not publicly ruled out making changes, though observers in Kabul said he is unlikely to alter rules he was instrumental in formulating and which are credited with cutting civilian casualties.

The United States, with almost 100,000 of the 140,000 international troops in Afghanistan, is bearing the greatest burden of a rising death toll, with 224 soldiers dead this year so far, and 1,171 since the war began in 2001.

Separately, a remote-controlled bomb rigged up to a motorbike detonated in the centre of southern Kandahar city on Saturday, killing at least one person, the deputy police chief for Kandahar province, Fazel Ahmad Khan Shairzad said.

Militancy claims over 24 lives including 5 NATO soldiers in Afghanistan

by Abdul Haleem

KABUL, July 10, 2010, (Xinhua)

Increasing Taliban-linked activities in the shape of roadside and suicide bombings left at least 24 people including five NATO soldiers dead in a single day on Saturday.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in a statement confirmed that five soldiers of the alliance have lost their lives in the restive southern and eastern Afghan provinces since early Saturday morning.

"One ISAF service member died as a result of small-arms fire, another died following an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) strike, and a third service member died following an insurgent attack, in eastern Afghanistan today," the statement said.

Two more ISAF service members died following separate IED strikes in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, the statement further said.

Furthermore, the Taliban birthplace Kandahar in south Afghanistan was shocked Saturday afternoon as a motorbike bomb ripped through a bazaar killing at least one civilian and destroyed two civilian cars.

"The bomb planted on a motorbike and exploded by remote control in a bazaar in Kandahar city the capital of Kandahar province at 02:50 p.m. local time today. As a result, one civilian was martyred," deputy provincial police chief Fazal Ahmad Khan Shirzad told Xinhua.

Two civilian cars parked in the bazaar were also destroyed in the blast, he further said.

Also on the same day Saturday, a suicide car bomb targeted NATO- led troops' convoy in Ismail Khil district of Khost province in east Afghanistan, a local official said.

The official who declined to be identified told Xinhua that a suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosive devices blew himself up near a NATO-led forces' military convoy at around 8 a.m. local time.

Meantime, a Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in talks with media via telephone from unknown location claimed of responsibility, stressing huge casualties were inflicted to the multinational force.

In a related development in Khost's neighboring Paktia province, unknown armed men opened fire on Saturday leaving 13 people all civilians dead, spokesman for provincial administration Rohullah Samoon said.

Also Afghan forces killed a would-be suicide bomber and detained two others on Saturday and thus foiling attempt to storm a military base in the southern Zabul province, Defense Ministry said in a statement released here.

"Three rebels including a suicide bomber attempted to target a base of Afghan national army in Shahjoi district at 07:00 a.m. local time but the troops opened fire killing the suicide bomber on the spot and captured two of his comrades," the statement added.

Meantime, a Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi claimed 11 Afghan soldiers were killed in the clash. However, spokesman for provincial administration Mohammad Jan Rasouli rejected the claim as mere propaganda.

Taliban also set on fire a school in Bust area of Helmand province on Saturday, deputy to provincial police chief Kamaludin Khan said.

Furthermore, clash and explosion left three civilians and one police dead in Gereshk district of the southern and militancy- plagued Helmand province on Saturday while seven others including five civilians and two police were injured, provincial police chief Mohammad Hakim Angar confirmed.

A roadside bomb targeted NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in northern Kunduz province Saturday morning injured two NATO soldiers and damaged two military vehicles, a spokesman with military alliance in the province Lieutenant Colonel Webber said.

Meantime, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in talks with media via telephone from undisclosed location said that two roadside bombs organized by the militants destroyed two tanks and inflicted huge casualties on the NATO troops in Chardara district of Kunduz province.

Editor: Mu Xuequan