Roadside blasts and clashes killed at least
22 Afghan policemen and civilians in Afghanistan, while a US-led coalition
soldier and several Taliban militants were also killed in separate incidents,
officials said Tuesday.
A mini-bus carrying passengers was blown up by a roadside bomb in the
Del Aram district of Farah province on Tuesday, Younus Rasouli, deputy
provincial governor told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
"Eight people, all of them civilians were killed in this attack,"
Rasouli said, adding that police units were deployed to the area to assist with
the evacuation.
Abdul Mutalib Rad, a spokesman for police forces in the western zone, also
confirmed the incident and said one civilian was wounded.
Rad blamed the attack on Taliban militants and said the road where it occurred
is often frequented by Afghan and foreign forces.
In the southern province of Kandahar, Taliban militants attacked a border
police outpost in Shorabak district on Monday. Roadside bombs then blew up two
police vehicles bringing reinforcements to the post, said Sayed Agha Saqib,
provincial police chief of Kandahar.
"In total, eight policemen and one civilian were killed in both the clash
and roadside attacks," Saqib said.
Four Afghan policemen were killed when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb
in the Charkh district of southern Logar province on Tuesday, Gholam Mustafa
Muhseni, provincial police chief said.
Mustafa said that a vehicle was completely destroyed in the attack that he
blamed on Taliban militants.
A foreign soldier died in the south-eastern province of Paktika province, the
US military said in a statement, but without disclosing the nationality of the
deceased soldier. Most of the troops serving under coalition forces are US
soldiers.
More than 60 international soldiers have been killed this year, while a total
of 232 NATO soldiers were killed in Taliban-led violence last year.
US-led coalition forces also said they had killed "several militants"
in the Garmsir district of southern Helmand province on Monday.
"During their search, several militants engaged coalition forces, who
responded with small-arms fire, killing the militants," the US military
said in a statement.
An unspecified number of militants were killed and nine detained in another operation
by coalition forces on Monday in Zurmat district of south-eastern province of
Paktia, a separate US military statement said.
"During the search, coalition forces were engaged by an unknown number of
militants from several buildings and responded with small- arms fire and
airstrikes," the statement said.
The combined forces also seized several grenade launchers, assault rifles,
protective vests and ammunition during the operation.
In another incident, one civilian was killed and three others were wounded in a
roadside attack in the eastern province of Nangarhar Monday, Abdul Ghafoor, a
spokesman for the provincial police chief said.
He said the civilians were digging on a dirt road in Roghano district when the
explosion occurred. Ghafoor could not say whether it was a freshly planted mine
or left-over from three decades of turmoil in the country.
The Taliban, who lost power in a US military invasion in late
2001, have been increasingly relying on the use of roadside bombs and suicide
attacks in their war on Afghan and international forces, dpa reported.
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