|
A Taliban suicide bomber dressed as a beggar blew up an Afghan government building, killing six people, as two NATO soldiers and a dozen other people died in more unrest, officials say.
The disguised bomber gunned down a security guard and then detonated explosives at the government offices, with two state prosecutors among his victims, Nimroz provincial governor Ghulam Dastgir Azad said. The blast brought down the single-storey building in the town of Zaranj on the southwestern border with Iran, the governor told AFP. "We have recovered so far six bodies," he said. The dead were provincial attorney Anwar Shah Khan, his 20-year-old son, his deputy and three civilians, Azad said. "The whole building has collapsed. There might be more casualties," he added. A spokesman for the rebel Taliban movement said the bomber was a member of the militia, which has dramatically stepped up attacks this year. There has been a wave of suicide blasts in Afghanistan in the past three years, most of them claimed by Taliban extremists who are waging an insurgency against the US-backed government in Kabul. Elsewhere in Nimroz, about 150 Taliban militants attacked a police post early Saturday, killing two policemen but losing eight of their own fighters, Azad said. Also on Saturday, insurgents killed two soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in eastern Afghanistan, the alliance's force said. It did not give the nationalities of the troops or details of how they were killed. Most soldiers in eastern Afghanistan are US nationals. The deaths took to 195 the number of international soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year, according to an AFP tally based on official statements. Elsewhere, insurgents attacked a police post in Laghman province, near the Afghan capital Kabul, leaving one policeman and two rebels dead, provincial police chief Abdul Karim Omeryar said. The hardline Islamist Taliban ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, when it was ousted in an invasion led by the United States and supported by Afghan anti-Taliban factions. They have regrouped to put up an insurgency that is said to have support from other extremist factions, including al-Qaeda, and radical elements based across the border in Pakistan. The Afghan government is supported by about 54,000 soldiers in a NATO-led force and a few thousand more in a separate US-led force as it fights to rebuild its security forces and fight back the extremists. A top US commander working in Afghanistan, Major General Jeffrey Schloesser, on Friday called for more troops to counter the growing insurgency violence amid signs the rebels are preparing for a winter campaign for the first time. Sunday, 7 September, 2008 Source: SBS
 |
