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23 killed in fresh Afghan violence
 Twenty Taliban were killed in a battle with the police in southern Afghanistan on Monday, while an Afghan boy, a NATO soldier and a policeman died in other attacks by the Taliban insurgency, officials said.
| May all the dead find themselves exactly where they deserve to be, if not necessarily where they expect to go. |
Fighting erupted in the southern province of Zabul on Sunday after the Taliban attacked a police patrol that had struck a roadside bomb, the interior ministry said. One policeman was killed in the ambush, it said in a statement. "The police responded to the attack and killed 20 enemies. The fighting lasted more than 10 hours," the statement said. The fighters left their dead behind after retreating, it added.
| One to twenty is pretty good odds, I think. Well done, gentlemen! |
In another attack, a soldier in a NATO-led force operating against the Taliban was killed in a mine strike in the south, the alliance said.
| May his memory bring comfort to those who loved him, and may his killers get their just reward...involving coals roasting intestines, if I recall correctly. |
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) released a brief statement that did not give the nationality of the dead soldier or details of the incident. Most of the troops in the south are US, British or Canadian.
Tape recorder bomb: Also on Monday, a bomb hidden in a tape recorder blew up in an electronics repair shop in a busy market in the eastern town of Khost and killed a 13-year-old boy, provincial officials said. Two other people were injured in the blast in the market that sells music, they said. There was no claim of responsibility for the bomb.
| Which is a change from not to long ago, when the Taliban claimed everything, or so it seemed. Interesting. |
On Sunday, meanwhile, two German soldiers deployed as part of NATO's force in Afghanistan were wounded in a gun battle that followed a roadside bomb explosion in the northeastern part of the country, the force told AFP.
The soldiers suffered gunshot wounds during a shootout that erupted in the province of Kunduz after their vehicle struck an improvised bomb similar to those used by Taliban, a military spokesman said. A Taliban spokesman called AFP from an unknown location to claim responsibility for the attack. The UN also reported that unidentified militants attacked the office of its Food and Agriculture Organisation in Kunduz, leaving two guards wounded. The motive of the attack was unclear, spokeswoman Nilab Mubarez told reporters in Kabul.
| Scientific farming is not mentioned in the Koran. What more need be said? |
Flag carrier: Meanwhile, Afghanistan's flag carrier on Monday became the first commercial civilian airline in 20 years to fly to the capital of the insurgency-hit southern province of Helmand, an official said.
| Afghanistan has a national airline? When did that happen? |
The Ariana Afghan Airlines plane, an Antonov 24, touched down at Bost Airport, in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, at 9am with 40 passengers from Kabul, the director of the airport said. It returned to Kabul an hour later with 30 passengers, said the official Mohammad Omar. "This was the first commercial civilian plane to land at Bost Airport in 20 years," Omar said. "Ariana started its once-flight-a-week flights today and other airlines including, Safi and Pamir, also have interests to plan regular flights to Lashkar Gah," Omar said. The civilian airport had been rebuilt with US funding but still lacked basic facilities like restrooms, he said.
| Surely there are clumps of bushes nearby, for those in extremis. Good landscaping design addresses more than mere prettiness. |
Posted by: 2009-06-09 |
