Bombs Kill 14 Civilians in Afghanistan

By TAIMOOR SHAH Published:

International Herald Tribune

August 13, 2009

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan —

Two bomb explosions in southern Afghanistan killed 14 people, including 3 children at play, Afghan officials said Thursday, as mounting violence before next week’s elections exacts an increasing toll on civilians caught up in the broadening war with the Taliban.

Dawoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Helmand provincial authorities, said a roadside bomb exploded next to a van carrying civilians, killing 11, including two women, in the province’s Gereshk district. “The Taliban have planted mines everywhere,” Mr. Ahmadi said. “That’s why most of the time, civilians are the targets.”

The Taliban offered no immediate comment on that explosion or another in Mirwais Mina, near Kandahar, that killed three children. Some reports said the children, aged between 8 and 12, were playing with a bomb they found at the side of a road. Abdul Ahmad, a police official, said it seemed the bomb had been recently planted “in an area where children and people are walking freely.”

An American serving with NATO forces in the south was also reported killed Thursday, The Associated Press reported, quoting a military press release that attributed the death to ”a direct fire attack.”

Taliban kill police chief in northern Afghanistan

Wed Aug 12, 2009, 1:18 am ET

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) –

Taliban fighters stormed a district police headquarters in once-quiet northern Afghanistan overnight, killing the police chief and two of his men, an official said, as violence spreads into once safe areas.

The attack, which led to a four-hour gunbattle into the early hours of Wednesday in Kunduz, is the latest in a wave of rising attacks a week before an August 20 election.

The attackers struck with small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades under cover of darkness, said Shaikh Saduddin, administrator of the Dasht-e-Archi district of Kunduz province.

The province, north of the Hindu Kush mountains and far from the southern war zone, has been largely quiet since Taliban militants were driven from power in 2001, but has seen escalating attacks in recent months.

This week the overall commander of NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan said militants were advancing from their traditional bastions in the south and east into previously quieter areas in the north and west.

After several hours of fighting, the militants abandoned the building following police reinforcement, Saduddin said.

"They (Taliban) killed the police chief and two other officers. Three more police were wounded," he said, giving no information about Taliban casualties.

Violence in Afghanistan, at its worst since U.S. and Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001, has increased further ahead of the election.

The United States has sent tens of thousands of extra troops to Afghanistan this year, where the Western force now numbers more than 100,000 for the first time, including 62,000 Americans.

President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday the militants would not be able to disrupt the vote.

(Writing by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Peter Graff and Dean Yates)