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Four Afghan nomads, two NATO soldiers killed
Kabul (AFP) Jan 27, 2009 Four Afghan nomads were killed Tuesday when a suspected insurgent bomb struck a vehicle, as two soldiers in the NATO-led military force died in the south of the country, officials said. The Kuchi nomads were travelling in a civilian minibus that struck a roadside mine and blew up in the southern province of Kandahar, police said. "The blast killed four civilians, wounded 10 others, including four women and a child," provincial police chief Mutaihullah Khan Qatah told AFP. He blamed the attack on the "enemies of Afghanistan", a term often used by Afghan authorities to refer to the Taliban and other insurgents. NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is helping the Afghan government to fight the Taliban-led insurgency, reported that two of its troops were killed in the south. It did not say how its soldiers died nor did it give their nationalities. The latest deaths take to 21 the number of international soldiers to die in Afghanistan this year, according to the icasualties.org website that tracks the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Southern Afghanistan is a notorious hotspot for the Taliban-led insurgency, with several districts out of government control. There are more than 22,000 foreign soldiers in the south, most of them American, British, Canadian and Dutch. In incidents on Monday, Afghan authorities said local and international troops killed five Taliban in an operation in the southern province of Helmand. Also late Monday in the eastern province of Kunar, a bomb struck a police vehicle killing two policemen and wounding four, border police commander Mohammad Zaman Mamozai said. Taliban and other insurgents regularly bomb security forces and the number of such attacks doubled last year to roughly 2,000, according to US officials. Up to 30,000 extra US troops are expected to start deploying into Afghanistan over the coming year, most of them in the south, as Washington shifts the main focus in the US-led "war on terror" from Iraq. ISAF announced that nearly 3,000 other US soldiers had taken up positions in strategic provinces near the Afghan capital, Wardak and Logar. The troops from the 10th Mountain Division, based in New York, were originally slated to deploy to Iraq but were diverted to Afghanistan in early September, it said. "The brigade is the first substantial illustration of the new military focus in Afghanistan," it said. Related Links News From Across The Stans
British minister signals troops, equipment boost in Afghanistan
London (AFP) Jan 25, 2009Defence Secretary John Hutton on Sunday signalled he was considering boosting the number of British troops and equipment in Afghanistan. |
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