Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

44 Afghanis Killed in War Attacks

May 4, 2009

Wave of attacks in south Afghanistan kill 29

by Bronwen Roberts Bronwen Roberts

KABUL (AFP) –

A wave of attacks killed 29 people in Afghanistan Monday, as President Hamid Karzai jetted to Washington for a summit on beating the threat of extremism.

In the bloodiest incident a bomb tore through a tractor and trailer transporting a group of Kuchi nomads in a remote district of southern Zabul province, a district governor said.

"A roadside bomb struck their vehicle and killed 12 people," said Wazir Mohammad, head of the Shamalzai district on the border with Pakistan.

The dead were six women, two children and four men, he said.

There was no claim of responsibility for the blast.

Mohammad also said that two Taliban fighters were killed in the same district early Monday when mines they were planting in a road exploded.

Taliban fighters, meanwhile, attacked a construction site near the Zabul capital, Qalat, where labourers were rebuilding bridges destroyed in earlier action, deputy provincial police chief Ghulam Jialani said.

Six security guards protecting the workers were killed in the shoot-out along with two civilian passers-by, he said.

In the eastern province of Laghman, a suicide attacker walked up to a vehicle carrying a provincial mayor and blew himself up, killing the official and six other people, the interior ministry said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the Laghman attack.

The mayor of Laghman, Mohammad Rahim Rahim, was one of the most senior officials in province after the governor.

"The mayor, three of his bodyguards and three civilians were martyred," the ministry said.

Authorities in the western province of Herat reported, meanwhile, that 13 Taliban fighters and a policeman were killed in clashes in the area Sunday.

About 150 Taliban fighters attacked a power plant, sparking fighting that left nine of the gunmen and a policeman dead, police spokesman Noor Khan Nikzad said.

Four more Taliban fighters died in an Afghan and international military operation in the Guzara district near the capital, he said.

The Taliban, in government between 1996 and 2001, warned last week that they would step up attacks on government officials as well as Afghan soldiers and the nearly 70,000 international troops who support them.

The deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and in neighbouring Pakistan has alarmed Western nations which fear it could foment another major Islamist attack like the September 11, 2001 strikes on the United States.

Karzai headed to Washington Monday to meet US leader Barack Obama and Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari amid concerns about the efforts to fight the Islamist threat in the region.

Karzai flew to Washington with his foreign and defence ministers immediately after registering to run for a second term in August presidential elections, including on his ticket controversial warlord Mohammad Qasim Fahim.

---

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.