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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| 10 Afghan troops killed in Zabul |
| 2004-05-04 |
| Ten security officers have been killed in attacks in Afghanistan's southeast, officials said, a day after a top US general warned of an upsurge in Taliban violence in the region. Five Afghan soldiers were killed in an ambush in Zabul province on Monday, provincial governor Khial Mohammed Husini told AFP. The soldiers were ambushed as they were travelling between provincial capital Qalat and their headquarters in the troubled Shahjoy district to the north, he said. "Government troops were despatched to the area but did not find the attackers," he said. In a separate attack, five security officers were killed by suspected Taliban just after midnight Monday in southern Kandahar province, a former stronghold of the ousted Islamic fundamentalist militia, provincial military spokesman General Abdul Wasay said. "Five people were killed by the Taliban last night at 12 in Mianishin district in northeastern Kandahar near the border with Zabul," he said. "Taliban attacked the district headquarters, they took these people with them and have killed them in the mountains." Three of those killed were soldiers, one was a hired security guard and the other was a military official from the area, he said. Kandahar's military commander General Khan Mohammed confirmed the second attack and said it was the work of Taliban. However, he said all five killed were government troops. In a third incident Monday, suspected Taliban militants attacked a government headquarters in Zabul's Mizan district, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of Qalat, leading to the arrest of four insurgents, Wasay said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |