Suicide bomber targets coalition convoy in Afghanistan
NOOR KHAN The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 08/13/2007 10:51:18 AM EDT
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A suicide bomber targeted a U.S.-led coalition convoy in eastern Afghanistan today, while Afghan security forces clashed with the Taliban militants in the south, leaving nine militants dead, officials said.
The blast in Khost province killed the bomber, said Gen. Mohammad Ayub, the provincial police chief. There were no immediate reports of casualties among the U.S. forces.
A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said they were aware of a car bomb explosion in the east but did not have further details on the incident.
In the south, Afghan police and army soldiers battled militants Sunday in Kandahar province's Shohrawak district, said provincial police chief Sayed Agha Saqib.
The joint Afghan forces thwarted a planned militant ambush at the district chief's compound, and the ensuing clash left nine militants dead, Saqib said. Authorities recovered the militants' bodies and weapons, he said.
During a cleanup operation after the battle, a roadside bomb hit a police vehicle in the same district, killing five officers and wounding two others, Saqib said.
Violence in Afghanistan has risen sharply during the last two months. More than 3,700 people, mostly militants, have been killed in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally of casualty figures provided by Western and Afghan officials.
In the northeastern province of Badakhshan, police arrested a man with a suicide vest today who said he was from Kazakhstan, said Shamsul Rahman, the deputy governor. The man said other suicide bombers were in Badakhshan, Rahman said, prompting police to launch a search operation.
Yesterday, in eastern Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan, a roadside bomb blast killed three U.S. troops, the governor's spokesman said, bringing to six the number of international forces killed over the weekend.
The American deaths bring to at least 356 members of the U.S. military who have died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Pentagon.
Meanwhile, working to soothe relations with neighboring Afghanistan, Pakistan's president said Sunday that a "particularly dark form" of terrorism confronts the region, while tribal leaders called for engaging in dialogue with the Taliban to confront extremism.
Speaking at the close of a four-day meeting of tribal leaders meant to counter rising militant violence, Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Pakistan and Afghanistan face a great danger from fringe groups that preach hate and radicalism. He also admitted that Taliban fighters seek safe haven in Pakistan before crossing the border to launch attacks.
The tribal meeting's closing statement said that a 50-man team of prominent leaders from both countries would hold regular meetings and work to "expedite the ongoing process of dialogue for peace and reconciliation with the opposition," a reference to Taliban militants.
Musharraf, after landing back in Pakistan, said the committee should "engage warring forces in Afghanistan to bring the terrorism and extremism to an end." Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the past has also encouraged dialogue with Taliban fighters to persuade them to support the government.
The White House has been working to broker what in the past has been a very public dispute between the Karzai and Musharraf, two of its close allies. The idea for the meeting, or jirga, came nearly a year ago during a meeting involving President Bush, Musharraf and Karzai.
Musharraf, who entered the grand, white tent with Karzai, said the two countries, as "true Muslims," must isolate die-hard militants and "win the hearts and minds" of the people.
He called the close of the jirga a beginning to the peace process and not the end of it.
Washington fears al-Qaida is regrouping in the lawless tribal border region. Key tribal leaders from Pakistan's North and South Waziristan boycotted the peace meeting, with some saying they feared reprisal attacks from the Taliban.
Karzai spoke only briefly Sunday following a longer address on Thursday, but relations between the two leaders appeared warmer than in the past, such as their White House meeting last fall when the two refused to shake hands in front of the press corps.
In the past, Karzai has complained that Taliban fighters operate from havens in Pakistan's tribal region along their border. Musharraf denies that, but also has said that he would act if the Afghans provided good intelligence on militants operating in the region.
On Sunday, Musharraf said both Afghanistan and Pakistan must be "watchful against the machinations of outsiders who may try to create mistrust and a gulf between the two brotherly countries."
He did not say who the outsiders are but referred to them as extremists and fanatics, a possible reference to the hundreds of foreign fighters in the region the U.S. military says come from Chechnya, Africa and Arab Gulf states.
But Musharraf indicated that even the Taliban, who are responsible for the roadside bombs and suicide attacks that have killed hundreds of international and Afghan troops and civilians the last several years, have a place in Afghanistan.
"Taliban are part of the Afghan society. Most of them may be ignorant and misguided, but all of them are not die-hard militants and fanatics who defy even the most fundamental values of our culture and our faith," he said.
A Taliban spokesman, meanwhile, reiterated on Sunday that two sick South Korean hostages would be released soon, although he did not say when. Negotiations between two Taliban leaders and South Korean officials over the fate of the remaining 21 hostages took place in Ghazni city on Friday and Saturday, but no new talks were held Sunday.
The governor of Ghazni province said Sunday that journalists could not take pictures or video or interview people close to the offices of the Afghan Red Cross, where the negotiations are being held and where on Saturday the two Taliban leaders held an impromptu news conference, the first such event in Afghanistan since the militants' fall in late 2001.
Musharraf said Pakistan and Afghanistan are confronted with a "particularly dark form" of terrorism and that he had "no doubt" that Taliban militants find support in Pakistan and cross over into Afghanistan.
"Our societies face a great danger in the shape of fringe groups, a small minority that preaches hate, violence and backwardness," he said. "We must rescue our societies from this new danger and work together to effectively defeat the forces of extremism and terrorism."
Musharraf's appearance was a boost for the jirga. He had pulled out of speaking at the opening session on Thursday because of domestic issues, instead sending Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
"Afghanistan has confidence in its neighboring country," Karzai said. "I'm praying that both countries have peace and prosperity."
The Taliban, ousted by U.S.-led forces in late 2001, have stepped up attacks in the past two years. The violence has killed thousands, raising fears for Afghanistan's fledgling democracy.
Refuting allegations from some Afghan officials that Pakistan tries to undermine progress in Afghanistan, Musharraf said Pakistan wants to see a strong, peaceful and stable Afghanistan.
"It is therefore painful for us to hear allegations that we are deliberately causing disturbance or violence in your country. We do not have such a policy and we will never have such a shortsighted and disastrous policy," he said.
Violence Flares Up in Pakistan, Four Killed
by Diane Smith 19:49, August 13th 2007
Violence Flares Up in Pakistan, Four Killed
Violence erupted again in Pakistan’s tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, four persons being killed and eight wounded by a fierce explosion that occurred Monday, reports from the area said.
A car bomb went off near a populated site in the Swat district in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), police sources informed. An investigation was launched, police being unable to confirm whether the blast was caused by a suicide attack or a remote controlled detonation.
In another incident, three militants were killed by government troops in South Waziristan after they attacked two army outposts. According to a military spokesman, insurgents launched several rockets at the posts and soldiers retaliated with gunfire, injuring other militants.
Reports from North Waziristan informed on Monday that two bodies allegedly belonging to two Afghan citizens were found on Sunday in the region. Both persons were beheaded as the perpetrators left a note saying “all those spying for the Americans will meet the same fate.”
Hundreds of people have been killed for allegedly spying in the same volatile tribal regions in the past years.
The Islamabad government was criticized by Afghanistan and the United States for not doing enough to rout out insurgency that has reached alarming levels in the northwest areas bordering Afghanistan.
Intelligence reports allege that Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters are hiding in the mountainous region and carry out cross-border attacks. During this weekend’s peace jirga that took place in Kabul, tribal and religious leaders, along with politicians from Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to cooperate and impose new measures that would stop arms smuggling across the frontier, militants and narcotics traffic - a main source of funds for insurgency.
© 2007 - eFluxMedia
Afghan forces thwart Taliban attack, kill nine
Mon Aug 13, 2007 7:54PM IST
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan security forces killed nine Taliban insurgents as they were preparing to attack a district police headquarters close to the Pakistan border, a provincial police chief said on Monday.
"We had intelligence that a sizeable group of Taliban militants were gathered in Spin Boldak district near the Pakistan border in an attempt to overrun the district police headquarters," said Sayed Agha Saqib, police chief of the southern province of Kandahar.
"Our soldiers thwarted the enemy's plan and killed nine of the Taliban insurgents," he said.
Taliban rebels have briefly overrun a number of isolated district centres, defeating the lightly armed and poorly trained police then withdrawing before the more powerful Afghan army or foreign forces arrive.
Spin Boldak is a border town on the main road from Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold, to Quetta in Pakistan, where Afghan officials say militants train, rest and recuperate.
Also near Spin Boldak, five Afghan police were killed and three more wounded when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb, Saqib said on Monday.
Two soldiers with the U.S.-led coalition force in Afghanistan were wounded in a suicide car bomb attack in the eastern province of Khost, a U.S. military spokesman said.
In a another incident, Afghan police arrested two suicide bombers along with explosives vests in the northern province of Badakhshan on Monday, an Interior Ministry statement said.
One of them is a foreign national who entered Afghanistan with a passport, the other one is an Afghan citizen, the statement said.
Taliban insurgents are conducting a campaign of bombings, ambushes and kidnapping to convince ordinary Afghans their government and its Western backers are incapable of providing security.
© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved
Marajudin Pathan, governor of Gazni province, where 23 South Koreans were taken hostage, talks to journalists in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2007. He said that South Korean officials and Taliban militants will determine late Tuesday a location for their first face-to-face talks over the hostages' fate. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
Taliban Free 2 South Korean Women
By AMIR SHAH
Monday, August 13, 2007
Two South Korean women among 23 hostages kidnapped by Taliban militants in mid-July were handed over to officials from the international Red Cross on Monday.
The two women wept as they got out of a gray Toyota Corolla driven by an Afghan elder and into two waiting Red Cross SUVs.
The women, who the Taliban have said are ill, were part of a South Korean church group kidnapped by militants on July 19. Two of the hostages were killed.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) _ A suicide bomber targeted a U.S.-led coalition convoy in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, while Afghan security forces clashed with the Taliban militants in the south, leaving nine militants dead, officials said Monday.
The blast in Khost province killed the bomber, said Gen. Mohammad Ayub, the provincial police chief. There were no immediate reports of casualties among the U.S. forces.
A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said they were aware of a car bomb explosion in the east but did not have further details on the incident.
In the south, Afghan police and army soldiers battled militants Sunday in Kandahar province's Shohrawak district, said provincial police chief Sayed Agha Saqib.
The joint Afghan forces thwarted a planned militant ambush at the district chief's compound, and the ensuing clash left nine militants dead, Saqib said. Authorities recovered the militants' bodies and weapons, he said.
During a cleanup operation after the battle, a roadside bomb hit a police vehicle in the same district, killing five officers and wounding two others, Saqib said.
Violence in Afghanistan has risen sharply during the last two months. More than 3,700 people, mostly militants, have been killed in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally of casualty figures provided by Western and Afghan officials.
In the northeastern province of Badakhshan, police arrested a man with a suicide vest on Monday who said he was from Kazakhstan, said Shamsul Rahman, the deputy governor. The man said other suicide bombers were in Badakhshan, Rahman said, prompting police to launch a search operation.
___
Associated Press Writer Amir Shah in Ghazni, Afghanistan contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2006 Salem Web Network. All Rights Reserved.
Army engineers work to connect Afghanistan one road at a time
By Sgt. David E. Roscoe, USA
Special to American Forces Press Service
FORWARD OPERATING BASE ORGUN-E, Afghanistan, Aug. 15, 2007 – U.S. Army engineers in Afghanistan are doing their part to restore security and the country’s economy by building roads, bridges and levees to connect Afghanistan’s people.
Afghanistan’s rugged terrain and mountainous landscape isolates most of the population from the country’s major cities and industrial area. Lack of funding, harsh seasonal weather and flash floods have made it almost impossible to maintain a lasting road system within the country. Only about 35,000 kilometers of roads connect the country’s economic centers. This explains why one of the main goals for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other engineer units is to build and repair an efficient road system in Afghanistan.
However, major concerns arise for soldiers constructing roads in a combat environment. Improvised explosive devices, car bombs and ambushes are a constant threat to soldiers working on roads.
“Our company has been attacked by one IED and one (car bomb), found three IEDs, and been ambushed three times while conducting road-construction missions in Afghanistan,” Army Capt. Nicholas O. Melin, commander of Company B, 864th Engineer Combat Battalion, said. “The motivating thing about all this is that our soldiers are not allowing these obstacles to stop them, and they have maintained their good spirits in the face of danger.”
Unpredictable rainfall in Afghanistan also has been a major threat for local homes and crops as local rivers flood. This was the case in Sira Qala, a community outside Forward Operating Base Sharana, where an aging levee suffered major flood damage threatening the village’s economy.
Army 1st Lt. Robert Green, Equipment Platoon leader with Headquarters and Support Company, 864th Engineer Combat Battalion, was tasked to repair the levee. “I think it was an important construction mission with an immediate impact on the population,” he said. “While it may not be a permanent solution to the problem, it will at least continue to protect the village for another couple seasons.”
Connecting Afghan civilians to cities with medical facilities also has been a major road construction goal for the battalion, dubbed Task Force Pacemaker for its Afghanistan deployment. In June, the battalion’s Company A completed a 15-kilometer road that connected the village of Khyur Khot to the town of Mest.
“The Alpha Company road-construction mission was very important because it connected the locals in that area to the town of Mest, which has medical facilities,” Army Capt. Mona A. Tanner, TF Pacemaker plans officer, said. “The road also provided coalition forces with freedom of movement between the two areas. The Alpha Company soldiers were consistent, determined and didn’t let delays weaken their spirits.”
Army Lt. Col. Mark J. Deschenes, the TF Pacemaker commander, added: “The primary purpose of Task Force Pacemaker’s road-construction mission is to maximize mobility for coalition forces and the Afghan people. The roads that we are constructing support economic growth and an efficient security presence in the country. Locals are able to travel from point A to point B easier than they were able to in the past.
“They are able to reach medical services and job opportunities with less difficulty,” he added. “The roads also allow for an increased security capability for coalition forces, the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police, providing a safer environment for everyone.”
(Army Sgt. David E. Roscoe is assigned to Task Force Pacemaker.)
