Afghanistan: Dozens Killed In Separate Incidents

Dozens, including nine NATO-led soldiers, killed across Afghanistan

Afghanistan, Jul 14, 2008: Dozens of people, including civilians and troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), were killed in separate security incidents across Afghanistan over the weekend.

Nine soldiers from the NATO-led force were killed when hundreds of Afghan insurgents ambushed a remote US military base in the village of Wanat in eastern Kunar province near the Pakistan border on Sunday (July 13). According to reports, the attack took place at around 04:30 local time, when militants armed with machine guns, rocket-propelled-grenades and mortars attacked the remote base in Wanat, killing at least nine soldiers and wounding 15 others. US troops called in airstrikes following the attack that left more than 40 insurgents dead. Identities of the fallen soldiers have not been officially confirmed. However, according to unconfirmed reports, those dead are likely to be US soldiers.

Also on Sunday, at least 24 people, including 20 civilians, mostly children, were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a police patrol in a crowded market in Deh Rawud district in southern Uruzgan province. One senior police officer was among the four police officers killed in the attack.

Two Afghan guards working for a road construction company were killed in a roadside bomb attack on Sunday in the eastern province of Ghazni. The bodies of two Afghan female detectives were discovered in a ditch in Ghazni on Saturday (July 12).

Also on Saturday, three police officers were killed in Zabul province when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle. At least 35 Taliban insurgents were killed in clashes with Afghan and US-led coalition forces that began on Saturday.

One US-led coalition soldier was also killed in a roadside bomb attack. One soldier from the ISAF was killed on Saturday from injuries suffered from an attack in northern Baghlan province on the same day.

NATO and Afghan forces killed four Taliban insurgents and wounded six others in a joint security operation in northeastern Nuristan province on Saturday. The Afghan military claims to have killed dozens of Taliban insurgents in a counter-attack in Nuristan on Sunday.

Taliban insurgents today (Monday, July 14) claimed responsibility for the abduction of a member of the upper house of the Afghan parliament who was abducted on Sunday in central Logar province.

The incidents underscore persistent insecurity across the country, where the death toll among foreign troops surpassed the US death toll in Iraq for the months of May and June 2008.

ENDS

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