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4 US soldiers killed in Afghanistan
A roadside bomb killed four US soldiers traveling in an armored vehicle in eastern Afghanistan yesterday, the deadliest attack on coalition forces in a month.In Kabul, a suicide bombing yesterday killed another four people and narrowly missed the chief of Afghanistans upper house of Parliament, who accused Pakistani intelligence of trying to assassinate him. The two bombings were the latest in a drumbeat of militant attacks that appear to be gathering intensity, four years after the ouster of the hard-line Taleban regime by US-led forces. The four US soldiers died when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive in the Pech Valley, Kunar province, as they patrolled to keep a road open to civilian and military traffic, military spokesman Col. Jim Yonts said. Kunar Gov. Asadullah Wafa said the blast went off at 4.15 p.m. as a convoy of six American vehicles was passing. Yonts accused militants of launching cowardly attacks, placing bombs and detonating them from a distance. He said it would not deter the US-led coalition forces from their mission of defeating the Taleban and Al-Qaeda and establishing enduring security. Earlier yesterday, a car bombing in the capital targeted Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, a Muslim scholar who briefly served as president in 1992. He is now head of the new Meshrano Jirga, or upper house, and leads a commission that encourages Taleban fighters to reconcile with the government. Mujaddedi escaped with burns to his hands and face, but two attackers who drove the explosive-laden station wagon into his convoy were killed, along with two bystanders a girl on her way to school and a man on a motorbike. Five others were wounded. Three bodies could be seen either side of the bloodstained road, which was littered with parts of the attackers car. The explosion was very strong. For a while I couldnt see anything. I was in the front seat of my car. I saw a big fire came toward me, the white-bearded Mujaddedi told a news conference a few hours later. His hands were wrapped in bandages burned when he raised them to protect his face from the blast. President Hamid Karzai condemned it as an attack on the voice of Afghanistan and clerics of Afghanistan. He did not blame anyone outright, but said that he had received information two months ago of a plot to attack important personalities in Afghanistan. Mujaddedi was more forthright, and directly accused Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence agency for the bombing. He offered no proof. We have got information that ISI of Pakistan has launched a plan to kill me, he said. Islamabad dismissed Mujaddedis charges. Pakistan rejects the baseless allegations, Pakistans Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said. The charges will aggravate deteriorating relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, two key allies in the US-led war on terror. Ties have been badly strained since Kabul revealed it had shared intelligence with Islamabad that Taleban leader Mullah Omar and top associates were hiding in Pakistan and terrorist training camps on Pakistani soil were churning out suicide attackers. Pakistan dismissed the intelligence as outdated and strongly criticized Afghanistan for publicizing it. Meanwhile, Haji Asadullah Khalid, governor of the former Taleban stronghold of Kandahar, confirmed that four Albanian and four Afghan employees of a German company, Ecolog, were kidnapped Saturday in neighboring Helmand province. He did not identify the kidnappers. Qari Mohammed Yousaf, who claims to speak for the Taleban, said in an earlier call to The Associated Press that the militia was responsible but had yet to issue any demands. He said the eight men were OK. Jalal, an Ecolog official, said the men went missing as they were returning after doing a survey in Helmands Grieshk district for the company, which treats dirty water at US and Afghan Army bases. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-03-14 |
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