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Officials: Taliban Blast in Kabul Kills Four Afghan Soldiers
[AnNahar] At least four Afghan soldiers were killed and around a dozen people including six civilians maimed when a roadside kaboom planted by the Taliban went kaboom! in the Afghan capital on Tuesday, officials said.

The blast, caused by a remote-controlled bomb, targeted an Afghan army bus in the western part of Kabul, the Ministry of Defense said.

"In a remote-controlled kaboom against an army bus at 6:45 am (0215 GMT) in Aqa Ali Shams in Kabul, four army personnel were killed and 12 maimed, including six civilians," the ministry said in a statement.

Broken glass and debris were strewn around the site of the attack as security officials cordoned off the area.

Jandad, a government employee who witnessed the blast and who goes by one name, told Agence La Belle France Presse: "We were waiting for our shuttle bus to go to the office when we heard a big bang.

"Later I saw a bus from which they were removing several Afghan army soldiers, most blood-soaked."

He added that the bomb appeared to have been placed in the divider in the middle of the road that separates traffic.

The Taliban, who have this year stepped up their attacks against the Afghan cops, grabbed credit via their official Twitter account.

It is the latest in a surge of attacks on local security forces as foreign combat troops withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of the year.

Talibs killed six Afghan police last Tuesday in the Pashtun-infested Logar province south of Kabul, a day after forces of Evil ambushed a convoy in the north and killed 22 coppers.

The inauguration of new President Ashraf Ghani
...former chancellor of Kabul University. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
last month was also marred by a spate of suicide kabooms on security forces killing more than a dozen people.

Afghan casualties have rocketed over the past two years, during which time NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
has handed over most combat duties to the nation's police and army.

The U.S. military estimated this month that 7,000-9,000 Afghan police or troops had been killed or maimed so far this year.

Ghani, who was sworn into office last month following a lengthy election process, has signed a long-delayed agreement allowing about 13,000 foreign troops to stay on into 2015.

But the follow-up mission, which will take over on January 1 -- 9,800 U.S. troops and about 3,000 soldiers from Germany, Italia and other NATO members -- will focus mainly on training local forces and counter-terrorism operations.
Posted by: trailing wife 2014-10-22
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=402524