2 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan

August 26, 2009

KABUL (AP) —

The NATO-led force in Afghanistan says attacks have killed two U.S. troops, keeping August on track to be the deadliest month of the war for the U.S. military.

NATO says one American died Wednesday after an improvised explosive device detonated in southern Afghanistan. A second service member was killed in an attack in the east. No other information was released.

The two deaths bring to 43 the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this month. July was the deadliest month of the nearly eight-year war — 44 U.S. troops died. But with five days left in August, this month could again set a new record.

 A record number of U.S. troops are now in the country — more than 60,000 — one of the reasons death tolls have climbed.

Taliban deny responsibility for deadly Kandahar blast

Posted : Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:11:59 GMT

DPA (German Press Agency)

Kabul -

A Taliban spokesman said Wednesday that the (Taliban Movement fighters) were not behind a deadly attack in the southern city of Kandahar that left 43 people dead the previous day. "We were not involved in last evening's attack in Kandahar city that killed dozens of our innocent people," Qari Mohammad Yousif Ahmadi told the German Press Agency

Taliban denies involvement and condemns Afghan car bomb blasts that killed 43, wounded dozens

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Wednesday, August 26th 2009, 11:27 AM

Kandahar, Afghanistan -

A Taliban spokesman denied any responsibility Wednesday for a major bombing that killed dozens of people in southern Afghanistan's largest city, saying the militant group condemns the attack.

The explosion ripped through a central area of Kandahar city just after nightfall, killing at least 43 people and wounding 65, according to the Interior Ministry. It flattened buildings and sent flames shooting into the sky on the same day that the first preliminary results were released from last week's landmark presidential vote.

Rescue workers were still pulling out injured people on Wednesday.

"There are some people still trapped in the buildings and we are trying to get them out," Mohammad Darwish, one of the rescue workers.

The thundering blast occurred in a district that includes UN facilities and an Afghan intelligence office.

Kandahar is the spiritual home of the Taliban and the city was hit by rockets on the morning of election day as Taliban militants made good on threats to try to disrupt last Thursday's polling with violence.

However, the group said it had no involvement in the most recent attack.

"We are denying responsibility, and condemn this attack in which innocent civilians were killed," Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi wrote in a text message sent to an Associated Press reporter.

The Interior Ministry said the blast was from remote-controlled explosives planted in a truck. Local officials have said a cluster of vehicle bombs detonated nearly simultaneously near a Japanese construction firm that is involved in reconstruction efforts in the southern Afghan city. The company recently took over a contract to build a road that insurgents had stalled for several months.

An Afghan employee of the international Red Cross was killed in the explosion, the group said. Abdul Wadood, a water engineer, was at home when the blast caused his ceiling to collapse, it said.

"Last night's blast is yet another indication of the suffering that civilians all over Afghanistan have to endure," the Red Cross said in a statement. It said its doctors were helping to treat the injured.

Meanwhile, a provincial official was killed in northern Afghanistan Wednesday by a bomb planted in his car, authorities said.

 Sayed Jahangir, the justice ministry director for Kunduz Province was driving to work in the provincial capital when his vehicle exploded, said Ahmad Sami Yawar, a spokesman for the provincial governor. Yawar said he did not know why Jahangir would have been targeted, other than his role as a government official.

UK 'won't be fighting in Afghanistan in five years'

Wed Aug 26, 2009, 11:21 am ET

LONDON (AFP) –

London's ambassador to Kabul said Wednesday he expects Britain's presence in Afghanistan will last at least "a generation," but hoped that its troops would no longer be fighting there within five years.

Mark Sedwill said he hoped the British military, which has seen 38 troops killed in Afghanistan since the start of July, would no longer be in a combat role within three to five years.

The ambassador said he expected the security situation in Afghanistan to improve over the coming years and said the presidential election campaign boded well for creating a truly national government.

"We would expect security to improve over the next few years with the US surge," Sedwill told reporters at the Foreign Office in London via videolink from Kabul.

"I hope that British forces are no longer in combat roles three to five years from now because the Afghan forces should by then be big enough and capable enough to take on that front-line task.

"But we will have British forces here, I am sure, for many years in training and mentoring roles, and some of those still are quite dangerous, incidentally.

"We would expect there to be a British presence here... trying to bring this country up for at least a generation," he said.

British has around 9,150 troops in Afghanistan, largely battling Taliban insurgents in the troubled restive southern Helmand province.

Sedwill said the extra British troops brought in to help during the elections would stay in the country throughout the entire campaign, should it run into a second round.