Afghan policemen stand next to the wreckage of a car used in a suicide bomb attack in Kandahar, August 18, 2007. A suicide car bomb attack outside a base of a U.S.security firm on Saturday killed 15 people in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar, witnesses and police said. REUTERS/Ismail Sameem (AFGHANISTAN)
Suicide raid on U.S. security firm kills 15 Afghans
Sat Aug 18, 2007 12:26PM IST
Mirwais Afghan
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide car bomb attack outside a base of a U.S. security firm on Saturday killed 15 people in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar, witnesses and police said.
Violence has surged in the past 19 months in Afghanistan, the bloodiest period since U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban's government in 2001.
The blast happened close to a highway on the western outskirts of Kandahar city, they said. Police said it was a suicide car bomber. Witnesses said it was aimed at a U.S. security firm called USPI.
A police vehicle and a passenger car were also hit by the explosion, witnesses said, adding three police were amongst the victims.
"We saw 12 dead bodies being dragged away. They were civilians and also Afghan employees of the company," said one witness who refused to give his name.
Kandahar's police chief, Sayed Agha Saqib, said 15 people had been killed in the attack.
A Reuters reporter saw 15 bodies in the morgue of a hospital in Kandahar city. They included five police, three women and a child, he said, adding 18 more people were wounded in the blast.
The attack came a day after a suicide bomber inside the city killed a district chief and three of his children at the gate of their home. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday's attack.
The Taliban movement has claimed many previous suicide attacks.
The group largely relies on suicide raids and roadside bombs as part of its campaign against the Afghan government and Western troops based in the country.
Some 7,000 people have been killed in the past 19 months in Afghanistan by violence which is rising despite the presence of some 50,000 Western troops led by NATO and the U.S.-led coalition as well as more than 100,000 Afghan forces.
The violence has hit hardest in southern and eastern areas, where the Taliban and their allies such as al Qaeda are most active.
It has hampered reconstruction projects in the war-torn country and forced dozens of aid groups to halt their activities.
© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.
Car Bomb Kills 9 in Afghanistan
Saturday August 18, 2007 6:46 AM
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - A suicide car bomber detonated himself near a convoy of private security forces Saturday in southern Afghanistan, killing three security guards and six civilians who were in a vehicle nearby, police said.
The bomb went off west of Kandahar city and wounded five other guards, as well as five civilians, said Mohammad Jan, a police officer at the scene. Several women and children were among the civilians killed and wounded.
Violence in Afghanistan has risen sharply during the last two months and has killed more than 3,700 people this year, most of them militants, according to an Associated Press tally of casualty figures provided by Western and Afghan officials.
Soldiers hurt in car bomb attack
Published: Saturday, 18 August, 2007, 07:07 AM Doha Time
PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a Pakistani security force convoy yesterday in the troubled northwest, killing himself and injuring five soldiers, police said.
The attack happened in the Tank district bordering South Waziristan, where tens of thousands of Pakistani troops are deployed to hunt down Taliban and Al Qaeda militants sheltering in the rugged region.
“The bomber slammed his car into the convoy, leaving five soldiers injured,” senior Tank police officer Amir Abdullah said.
Three vehicles were carrying the soldiers from Tank to Jandola town when the bomber chased them in a car before it exploded, he said.
Earlier, Pakistani forces killed four suspected militants in a firefight after a rocket attack on their positions overnight in South Waziristan, local security officials said.
Clashes between security forces and militants have been reported daily from the lawless region since the breakdown in July of a peace deal the authorities signed with pro-Taliban groups in September last year.
Pakistan’s army said yesterday that 15 militants were killed and a dozen others injured in clashes on Thursday which erupted after militants tried to ambush a security forces convoy on the Jandola road.
“We had initially received reports about killing of 10 militants but a later report put the number of fatalities among militants at 15,” chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said.
He said that three soldiers were killed in the attack while four more succumbed to their injuries later, raising the number of deaths to seven.
Separately, two suspected militants were killed when they failed to stop their vehicle at a check post near Mirali town in North Waziristan, security officials said.
When asked about nationalities of the two militants killed, the spokesman said they had been identified as Uzbek and Arab.
The two other militants in the group were arrested.
The Waziristan region in Pakistan’s tribal belt has been the scene recently of escalated military operations against suspected cells of the Taliban and Al Qaeda believed to be planning attacks from there within Pakistan, over the border in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world. – AFP
Gulf Times Newspaper, 2007
Car Bomb Kills 15 in Afghanistan
The Associated Press
Saturday, August 18, 2007; 2:18 AM
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A suicide car bomber detonated near a convoy of private security forces Saturday in southern Afghanistan, killing four Afghan guards and 11 civilians, including three women and two children, police said.
The bomb went off west of Kandahar city and also wounded six other guards as well as 20 civilians who were in two minivans passing by the convoy, said Kandahar provincial police chief Syed Agha Saqib.
Saqib said the guards worked for the U.S. Protection and Investigations security firm, but USPI could not immediately be reached for comment or to confirm that their employees were attacked.
Five women and three children were among the civilians wounded. Women's and children's shoes were scattered about the area. A stuffed animal toy was left in one of the destroyed minivans.
Violence in Afghanistan has risen sharply during the last two months. More than 3,700 people have died so far this year, most of them militants, according to an Associated Press tally of casualty figures provided by Western and Afghan officials.
© 2007 The Associated Press
Car bomb strikes Kandahar convoy
mwcnews.com
By Agencies
Suicide attacks are increasing in Afghanistan [AFP]
Suicide attacks are increasing in Afghanistan [AFP]
At least 15 people in a convoy guarded by a private US security firm have been killed by a car bomb in southern Afghanistan.
As many as 26 people were also wounded in the suicide attack on Saturday, the blast being so strong it tore through several vehicles.
Police say that the attack was carried out in a crowded area west of Kandahar.
Sayed Aqa, a police chief, said: "Fifteen people, four Afghan security guards and 11 civilians, were killed and another 26 including 19 civilians and seven guards were wounded in the suicide blast today."
The convoy, which was guarded by USPI, was travelling to the Zahri district in Helmand province.
The blast destroyed two vehicles belonging to the guards and a civilian minibus.
Jan Mohammad, a police officer, said: "The bomb was so strong that it ripped through the civilian minibus and several other vehicles."
Carnage
Body parts and pieces of metal from the bomber's car were scattered about 100m from the site. The outer wall of a nearby mosque were also partially destroyed.
One witness, who refused to give his name, said: "We saw 12 dead bodies being dragged away. They were civilians and also Afghan employees of the company."
The attack came a day after a bomber killed a district chief and three of his children at the gate of their home.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for this attack, but the Taliban has claimed responsibility for many blasts in the region.
The group mainly relies on suicide attacks and roadside bombs in its campaign against the US-backed Afghan government and Western troops based in the country.
At least 7,000 people have been killed in the past 19 months despite the presence of 50,000 soldiers led by Nato and the US-led coalition, as well as more than 100,000 Afghan forces.
Attacks occur most in southern and eastern areas, where the Taliban and al-Qaeda are most active.
It has hampered reconstruction projects and has forced dozens of aid groups to end their activities.
German woman kidnapped in Kabul, officials say; Taliban says SKorean hostage talks have failed
The Associated Press
Saturday, August 18, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan: An armed man walked into a fast food restaurant in the Afghan capital and abducted a German woman at midday Saturday, officials said, as a Taliban spokesman said talks to free 19 South Korean hostages have failed.
Meanwhile, a suicide car bomb attack killed 15 people and wounded 26 others, including several women and children, in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar.
The abduction of the German woman, who works for a Christian aid organization, prompted police in Kabul to shoot at a speeding getaway car, killing a nearby taxi driver.
The assailants had pulled up to a barbecue and fast food restaurant in a dark gray Toyota Corolla, and one of the men went inside and asked to order a pizza, said intelligence officials investigating the incident.
They said two other men waited outside, while another remained in the car.
The man in the restaurant pulled out a pistol, walked up to a table where the woman was sitting with her husband, and took her from the restaurant, the officials said on condition of anonymity because of agency policy.
Ahmad Fahim, who works in a nearby bakery, said that the driver had his face covered, and that the man who had been with the woman called for help as she was taken away.
"The man was shouting 'Police! Police!'" and was frantically making calls on his mobile phone, Fahim said.
Police spotted the speeding car and opened fire but missed, hitting a nearby taxi and killing its driver.
Germany's Foreign Ministry confirmed the kidnapping and said they were working with Afghan officials toward a resolution.
"Today a German citizen was abducted in Kabul. We must assume it was a kidnapping," said Julia Gross, a spokeswoman for the ministry in Berlin.
"The Foreign Ministry's crisis team is engaged and working toward a solution in close cooperation with Afghan officials," Gross said.
The 31-year-old woman and her husband, also a German, have worked for the Christian organization Ora International in Kabul since September 2006, said Ulf Baumann, a spokesman for the organization.
Baumann did not disclose the woman's name or her husband's. He said she was fluent in the Afghan language Dari.
Ora International, based in the central German town of Korbach, concentrates its efforts in Afghanistan on health issues and HIV/AIDS awareness, according to its Web site.
U.N. staff in Kabul were told to remain in their locations Saturday afternoon as authorities investigated the abduction, a U.N. official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on security matters.
Other foreigners were also placed under tight security.
The latest incident comes amid heightened fears of abductions, after 23 South Koreans and two Germans were taken hostage in separate incidents last month in central Afghanistan.
One of the German men has been shot to death. The other remains in captivity.
Taliban militants killed two of the South Koreans and released two others after face-to-face talks with South Korean officials.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the group's demands for the release of the remaining 19 South Koreans remains the same — a swap for Taliban prisoners, which the Afghan government has ruled out.
"The negotiations failed because we have presented them (the South Korean delegates) with our list of 23 people we want to be released, but the Korean delegation ... said, 'We cannot fulfill your demands,'" Ahmadi said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
"We're still ready for more negotiations if the Korean side is willing to meet our demands ... the exchange of prisoners," he said.
The Afghan and Italian governments were heavily criticized after swapping five Taliban prisoners for the release of an Italian journalist in March. The Afghan government, worried that hostage-taking will become an industry, said the prisoner swap was a one-time deal.
Separately on Saturday, a suicide bomber detonated near a convoy of private security forces west of Kandahar, killing 15 people including three women and two children, police said.
Four security guards were among the dead, while the attack wounded six guards and 20 civilians who were riding in two minivans also hit by the blast, said Kandahar provincial police chief Syed Agha Saqib.
Saqib said the Afghan guards worked for a U.S. security firm called U.S. Protection and Investigations.
Violence in Afghanistan has risen sharply during the last two months. This year more than 3,700 people — most of them militants — have died, according to an Associated Press tally of casualty figures provided by Western and Afghan officials.
____
Associated Press Writers Noor Khan in Kandahar and Froben Homburger in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed to this report.
15 killed in Kandahar suicide attack
dawn.com
KANDAHAR, Aug 18: A suicide car bomb attack outside a base of a US security firm here on Saturday killed 15 people. The blast occurred close to a highway on the outskirts of the city, police said. Witnesses said it was aimed at United States security firm USPI.
A police vehicle and a car were also hit by the explosion, witnesses said.
�We saw 12 bodies being dragged away. They were civilians and also Afghan employees of the company,� said a witness.
A Reuters reporter saw 15 bodies in the morgue of a hospital, five of them of policemen, three women and a child. He said 18 other people were wounded.
MULLA OMAR: Taliban leader Mulla Mohammad Omar, meanwhile, called upon the Afghans to unite with the militants to drive western forces from Afghanistan.
A message marking the 88th anniversary on Sunday of Afghanistan�s independence from Britain, signed by the Taliban chief and emailed to news agencies, called on Afghans to set aside their differences and wage jihad against colonialist forces.
�The enemies of the religion of Islam and the independence of the country have launched satanic propaganda under the slogans of democracy and freedom and are trying to disperse Afghans and benefit from it,� it said.
�We must wake up and be careful. We have to put aside all of our internal, regional and linguistic differences and unite against the enemy.�
The message said the regrouped militants were winning their war against the more than 50,000 coalition forces.�Reuters/AFP
Afghan bystanders and police personeel look at the wreckage of a damaged car near the site of a suicide bomb attack in Kandahar August 18, 2007. A suicide car bomb attack outside a base of a U.S.security firm on Saturday killed 15 people in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar, witnesses and police said. REUTERS/Ismail Sameem
Suicide car bomb attack kills 13 Afghan civilians, 2 guards
By David Rohdeand Taimoor Shah
New York Times
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:08/19/2007 01:50:42 AM PDT
KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide car bomb attack killed 13 civilians and two Afghan security guards on the outskirts of Kandahar on Saturday morning, Afghan officials said. The attack was one of the deadliest in southern Afghanistan this year, and two women and a child were among the dead.
In Kabul, armed men walked into a restaurant in an affluent neighborhood on Saturday afternoon and kidnapped a woman who was a German aid worker, Afghan and Western officials said. The woman, who works for a group that helps Afghan orphans, is the latest of several foreigners who have been kidnapped in Afghanistan.
The suicide bombing on Saturday occurred around 9 a.m. when a man rammed a bomb-laden car into a convoy of vehicles driven by Afghan employees of U.S. Protection & Investigations, a private American security company that guards foreign contractors.
The explosion destroyed a security company vehicle and killed two security guards, according to the police, but the bulk of its impact was on a van carrying civilians.
"The van passing nearby the incident was completely destroyed, along with the passengers," Muhammad Nader, a driver who had seen the attack, said in a telephone interview. "I saw pieces of human bodies scattered around."
Sayed Agha Saqib, the Kandahar province police chief, said 20 people had been wounded in the car bomb attack and taken to hospitals for treatment.
In the kidnapping in Kabul, two armed men walked into the restaurant in the Karta Chahar neighborhood as the German woman and her husband were eating at 1:30 p.m., said a Western official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the kidnapping. The Taliban has carried out a rash of abductions in Afghanistan in recent weeks. But in a telephone interview, a spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahed, said he did not know whether the Taliban was involved on Saturday.
At the same time, there has been a rise in kidnappings, killings and robberies by criminal gangs in Kabul. On Wednesday, a British national was shot dead in Kabul in an apparent robbery.
"From our perspective, it's not looking like it's political," said the Western official, referring to the German woman's kidnapping. "This is looking like a criminal abduction."
The Taliban is holding hostage 19 Korean Christian aid workers, who were abducted as they rode on a public bus driving from Kabul to Kandahar. The Taliban have killed two male hostages and released two women.
In that case, a Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said in a telephone interview that negotiations between the Taliban and Korean officials had broken down.
Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan
First Van Doo to die in mission
Andrew Mayeda
CanWest News Service
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Pte Simon Longtin was killed on 19 August, 2007 after the vehicle he was traveling in, a LAV III, struck an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).
CREDIT: DND
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Quebec's storied Van Doos regiment is mourning its first loss in Afghanistan after a young private who arrived in the country only three weeks ago was killed by a roadside bomb.
Pte. Simon Longtin, 23, was travelling in a LAV-III armoured vehicle when it struck an improvised explosive device.
Canadian soldiers exchanged fire with Taliban insurgents after the blast, but no other Canadian soldiers were injured and no Taliban casualties could be confirmed.
Longtin was evacuated by helicopter to a hospital at Kandahar Airfield, but was pronounced dead upon arrival.
He is the first member of the Van Doos to be killed while serving in Afghanistan. The Royal 22nd Regiment, as it is officially known, took command of Canada's operations in Afghanistan on Aug. 1.
"It's like losing almost a brother. We're like a big family here," said Col. Christian Juneau, Canada's deputy commander in Afghanistan. "We will mourn, we will pay our respects to the family and our fallen comrade, and we will carry on with the mission."
Longtin, who hails from Longueuil, Que., was an infantry rifleman with Charlie Company, which forms part of Canada's battle group.
He had trained for two years with the company before arriving in Afghanistan about three weeks ago.
He lived with other members of the company at Masum Ghar, a forward operating base located at the border of the volatile Zhari and Panjwaii districts.
Lieut.-Col. Alain Gauthier, commander of the Canadian battle group, called Longtin a "keen," "professional" soldier.
Sunday, Maj. Kasey McLean, speaking the base in Valcartier, Que., said Longtin's family said it was proud he served.
McLean, a Van Doo commander, said the family told him Longtin would "often express his pride and belief in what he did."
He said the family wished to mourn in private and would issue a statement later.
Political observers, meanwhile, will be watching closely to see how the news reverberates in Quebec, where support for the war is the lowest of any province.
According to some polls, seven in 10 Quebecers oppose the mission.
The attack occurred at about 1:41 a.m. along Foster Road, roughly 20 kilometres west of Kandahar City.
The vehicle was part of a supply convoy headed west toward Masum Ghar.
It is the second time in a week that Canadian soldiers have been wounded or killed along Foster Road, a well-travelled supply route. Five soldiers were lightly injured last Sunday by an IED along the same road. After that attack, the military dispatched engineers to scour the route for IEDs.
The engineers checked for bombs in drainage culverts where insurgents are believed to have planted the bomb used in last Sunday's attack. At one point, engineers discovered a Chinese-made mortar in one of the culverts. They detonated the bomb safely, setting off a thud that echoed through the nearby mountains.
Juneau said Canadian troops will step up surveillance of the route. "However, with the size of our operation, it's quite difficult to have eyes everywhere ... You travel on the road, (and) the next night they can insert themselves and install an IED."
Military officials declined to provide details on the nature of the bomb, saying the incident was under investigation. They also would not say where Longtin was sitting in the LAV-III, which is designed to protect against roadside bombs.
The death of the first Van Doos caps a bloody week in Kandahar province.
Two soldiers incurred minor injuries Friday after their armoured vehicle rolled over an IED while traveling in a supply convoy about 30 kilometres west of Kandahar City. A suicide bomber also killed the chief of Zhari district and three of his children. On Saturday, a suicide car bomber rammed into a convoy of vehicles, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens of others on the edge of Kandahar City.
Some observers believe the insurgents could step up their attacks when the Muslim holy period of Ramadan begins in a few weeks.
On Saturday, the Taliban released a statement purported to be from their reclusive leader, Mullah Omar. It called on Afghans to wage a jihad against the foreign "invaders." The statement came on the eve of Independence Day, which commemorates Afghanistan's declaration of independence from Britain in 1919.
"Our country is once again occupied by the same forces," Omar said in his statement, which has not yet been verified.
Juneau brushed off the Taliban warning, reiterating the Canadian position that the insurgents are "on their heels."
He admitted there has been "a lot of activity" by insurgents recently, but he said the attacks were not well co-ordinated.
Violence in Kandahar province has surged in recent months, with the rate of roadside bombings and other terrorist attacks reaching its worst level since the war began in 2001.
Sixty-seven Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have now died in Afghanistan since 2002. There are roughly 2,500 Canadian troops stationed in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led coalition that is attempting to secure and rebuild the country.
Canada's military commitment ends in February 2009. Prime Minister Harper has said he will seek a consensus from Parliament before extending the mission.
Juneau said the debate about whether to extend the mission should be left to politicians and the Canadian public.
"The important thing for us, the soldiers, the whole team that is deployed here, is the fact that we know the Canadian public is behind the soldiers, the people wearing the uniform."
On Sunday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement on the latest death.
"It is with deep sorrow that I extend my condolences, on behalf of all Canadians, to the family and friends of Private Simon Longtin, who was killed in Afghanistan."
"Private Longtin displayed resolve and courage in serving his country, his family and friends can be proud of him because he was playing a very important role in a very challenging environment. He will be sorely missed by the Canadian Forces family."
"In marking the 65th anniversary of the Dieppe Raid, we pay tribute to the soldiers of our past. The sacrifices of soldiers like Private Longtin carry on this legacy today, helping to bring stability and peace to parts of the world plagued by turmoil and upheaval."
Liberal Leader Stephane Dion also issued a statement.
" . . . I would like to express my deepest sadness and regret at the death of Private Simon Longtin in a roadside bombing in Kandahar.
"We send our most sincere sympathies to Private Longtin's family, comrades and friends as they cope with this tragic loss. Our thoughts and prayers are also with the seven other Canadian soldiers injured in Afghanistan this week. We wish them a full and speedy recovery.
"Today's loss serves as a reminder of the very real challenges the men and women of the Canadian Forces face every day as they undertake this mission, and I speak for all Canadians when I say that we greatly appreciate their sacrifices to help the people of Afghanistan and bring stability to the region."
Defence Minister Peter MacKay said in a statement Longtin was an exceptional Canadian soldier who made the "ultimate sacrifice."
"He served valiantly, and represents Canadian values and traditions in the finest sense.
"Our mission in Afghanistan is noble and in our national interest, and we will forever honour our troops who put themselves on the line to defend those interests and make a positive difference in the lives of others."
© CanWest News Service 2007
