Jan 29, 2005 9:07 am US/Eastern
Mine Blast Kills Nine Afghan Soldiers
Taliban Has Claimed Responsibility For Blast
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) ―
Nine Afghan soldiers died and another was seriously injured Saturday when a mine exploded near their vehicle as they traveled close to the Pakistani border, an Afghan commander said. A spokesman for the Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast, one of the bloodiest in months.
Meanwhile, another mine reportedly wounded four Afghans working for a U.S. security firm in eastern Afghanistan.
The 10 soldiers from a border guard unit were aboard a pickup truck when it struck the land mine on a road near Spinboldak, a frontier town in southern Kandahar province, Gen. Abdul Raziq Khan, the unit's commander, told The Associated Press.
The only survivor, an officer called Qadir Bhai, was seriously injured and taken to a nearby French special forces base for treatment, Khan said.
He said the mine was freshly laid and blamed Taliban militants for the attack.
"They are coming over the border from Pakistan to carry out these attacks," he said in a telephone interview from Spinboldak.
Mullah Abdul Hakim Latifi, a man who regularly claims to speak for the Taliban, said its members detonated the mine by remote control and then opened fire on the stricken soldiers.
He claimed 11 troops were killed and vowed the hardline militia would continue to attack Afghan and American forces.
There was no way to verify his claim.
The four Afghans were wounded on Thursday when a mine exploded near their vehicle in Chawkay district of Kunar province, Interior Ministery spokesman Latfullah Mashal said.
Mashal said the men were working for a U.S. contractor called USPI, which provides security for a Turkish construction company repairing the province's main road. A Turkish man working on the road was abducted and killed last month.
Two of the injured were taken to hospital in Jalalabad while two others were treated at the scene, Mashal said.
He said investigators were unsure if the mine was newly laid or a leftover from Afghanistan's many years of war.
U.S. and Afghan security forces are in the midst of a winter-long operation supposed to keep militants on the defensive and prevent them from preparing major violence against Afghan parliamentary elections slated for the spring.
Commanders have said the operation includes fresh efforts to tighten security along the mountainous border with Pakistan, where militants are believed to find refuge between attacks on American and Afghan troops.
In another, incident an Afghan border guard died on Saturday in southeastern Khost province after a gunmen tried to extort money from a car full of guards at an illegal checkpoint, police said.
The gunmen, who opened fire on the car when the soldiers refused to pay, was also fatally shot, police chief Mohammed Ayoub said.
(© 2005 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Comments