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| Afghanistan |
| Car bomb kills 3 in Kabul, 1 French and 16 Afghans killed in Helmand |
| 2006-05-22 |
| A car bomb possibly targeting a convoy of coalition troops killed three people in the Afghan capital yesterday. One French soldier and 16 Afghan soldiers were killed and about 40 other troops wounded in two firefights in southern Afghanistan. The car bomb exploded on a busy road that links several bases belonging to the US-led coalition and a separate Nato-led peacekeeping force, killing the driver of the car and two civilians. In the southern Helmand province, which is under the command of British troops, a French soldier was killed and a French and an American soldier were injured during a gunfight on Saturday. Twenty-five Afghan soldiers were also hurt. Earlier that day, the defence ministry in Paris announced the deaths of two special forces troops killed in neighbouring Kandahar province. In a second battle in Helmand province on Saturday, 13 Afghan soldiers were killed and 15 hurt in an eight-hour battle in which at least nine Taliban militants were killed. EU security chiefs, meanwhile, warned that hundreds of Islamic militants who had gone to Iraq to fight coalition forces were returning to Europe to wage "holy war". Baltazar Garzon, the Spanish judge who has led the campaign against al Qaeda since the 2004 Madrid bombings, said "large numbers" of veteran fighters were trickling back from the Middle East. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |