Archive for January, 2009

A suicide car bomber has struck in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killing four civilians and an American soldier.

Nearly 20 others were injured in the blast near a US base and the German embassy. A number of German nationals are said to be among the wounded.

A witness told the BBC the blast had set fire to several cars and a tanker.

In a later attack in eastern Nangarhar province a civilian died and six people were hurt, including three policemen. The Taleban claimed both attacks.

A child was among the dead in Saturday’s first bombing on a small road between an American base, Camp Eggers, and the German embassy in the central Kabul district of Wazir Akbar Khan.

There was confusion earlier over casualty figures as the US military said two soldiers had been killed.

It then said five US soldiers and an American civilian had been injured and that one of the wounded personnel died later.

‘Cowardly’

A spokesman for the German foreign ministry in Berlin said several embassy workers had been hurt.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the suicide attack – the first to hit Kabul this year – was a “cowardly act” that would not deter Berlin.

Germany has 3,200 troops in Afghanistan, mainly in the country’s north.

The heavily-guarded US base is the headquarters for soldiers training Afghan police and army forces.

Reuters news agency reported that Afghan relatives of the dead had gathered screaming and crying outside a nearby hospital.

Despite the heavy security in the district, which houses many embassies and offices of international organisations, the district has been attacked before.

In November four Afghans were killed by a suicide bomber outside the US embassy.

In Saturday’s second attack, a suicide bomber killed a civilian while attempting to ram his vehicle into a convoy of Nato troops and Afghan police in Chaparhar district, Nangarhar province.

A Taleban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, told AP news agency a suicide bomber had carried out the Kabul attack in a Toyota Corolla. The militant group later claimed the second blast too.

The militants’ influence has spread from their traditional heartlands in the south and east to areas closer to the capital.

But the BBC’s Martin Patience says that with increased police checkpoints throughout the city, there were fewer attacks inside Kabul in 2008 than in the previous year.

US President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to make Afghanistan a foreign policy priority after he comes to office on Tuesday and is expected to approve the doubling of US troops in the country from the 30,000 at present.

One of Afghanistan’s top army officers and 12 other soldiers have been killed in a helicopter crash in the west of the country, the defence ministry says.

It said the helicopter carrying General Fazaludin Sayar crashed in Herat province because of bad weather.

Gen Sayar was one of the Afghan army’s four regional commanders and in charge of the west of the country.

The delegation he was leading had been on its way to visit an army base in neighbouring Farah province.

Defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP news agency that it was the army’s worst crash since 2001.

According to some reports, Taleban fighters claimed they had shot the helicopter down – but the ministry denied this, saying it was an accident.

The BBC’s Martin Patience, in Afghanistan, says the Afghan security forces are still heavily dependent on old Russian aircraft to transport their troops.

And he says questions have been raised about safety standards in the past.

The other people who died in the crash were reported to be the corps’ operations chief, its telecommunications official, five bodyguards, four crew and the general’s chief-of-staff.

KABUL: Five American soldiers and nine Afghans were killed in a string of incidents in Afghanistan on Thursday and Friday, according to local officials and the U.S.-led coalition.

On Friday, three American soldiers on patrol in southern Afghanistan were killed when their armored Humvee struck a large roadside bomb, according to the coalition.

The three were traveling in Zabul province, near the border of neighboring Kandahar province, when their vehicle hit the bomb. They were riding along Highway One, the main road that links Kandahar and the south with the Afghan capital, Kabul. The 280-mile (460-kilometer) stretch of highway has been the scene of many Taliban attacks on American convoys.

On Thursday, two American soldiers and three Afghan civilians were killed near Kandahar when a suicide bomber drove an explosive-packed car into a crowded bazaar, according to coalition officials. The blast wounded 21 civilians.

The attack occurred in Maiwand, a district west of Kandahar that has been the site of numerous attacks against American forces and Afghan government officials. The Americans were on foot patrol at the time.

Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in a telephone interview. He said the bomber was an Afghan man.

In a third incident, a suicide bomber struck another bazaar Friday morning, this time in Zaranj, the capital of Nimroz province, also in southwestern Afghanistan. The suicide bomber, wearing an explosive belt and riding a motorcycle, parked outside a fruit shop where a local police commander, identified by local officials as Gul Mohammed, was shopping. The bomber stepped inside and blew himself up.

Mohammed was killed, as were at least five others, including another police officer, according to Nimroz Governor Ghulam Dastagir Azad.

At least three other Afghans were wounded.