27 Taliban Fighters Killed In Afghanistan

October 9, 2009

(RTTNews) -

Two operations by Afghan and NATO-led forces in southern Afghanistan Wednesday resulted in the death of 27 (alleged Taliban fighters), the Afghan Defense Ministry said.

Afghan army commandos and US Special Forces in Helmand killed 17 fighters, the defense ministry said in a statement Thursday.

Ten (alleged Taliban fighters) were killed in retaliation by Afghan and international forces in Gomal district of the south-eastern province of Paktika, when their convoy came under attack.

This was the latest in the eight-year-old US-led military operation to oust the Taliban from Afghanistan.

For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com

17 dead as suicide blast targets Kabul's Indian embassy

Thu Oct 8, 4:16 pm ET

KABUL (AFP) –

A massive suicide car bomb struck outside the Indian embassy in Kabul on Thursday, killing 17 people and injuring 63 more, most of them civilians, in an attack claimed by Taliban fighters.

In a statement on their website, the Islamist insurgent group said that one of their "martyrs" had carried out the attack in the heavily fortified central diplomatic area, and said the Indian embassy "was the main target".

The attack took place just after 8.30 am (0400 GMT) on busy Interior Ministry Street, sending a huge plume of smoke and dust into the air and causing carnage and chaos during the morning rush hour.

Interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP the toll had risen to 17 from an initial 12, including two police officers and 15 civilians. Fifty civilians were among the wounded, with 13 police officers also injured.

The dead, it said, "included a few high-ranking officials of the embassy (and) 35 soldiers of foreign and Afghan nationality," (according to a Taliban statement).

"The explosion caused damage to the walls of the Indian embassy, which was the main target," it added.

It identified the suicide bomber as "Khalid" from the Paghman district of Kabul province.

Indian officials -- in New Delhi and at the Kabul embassy -- said no one at the embassy was killed, though some guards had sustained injuries as the blast blew out glass windows and doors. No foreign troops were reported killed.

A similar suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul in July 2008 killed 60 people and was blamed on Taliban fighters.

That attack, which remains the deadliest in Kabul, led to stringent new security measures such as concrete blast barriers at the embassy -- which Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said in New Delhi had limited the impact of Thursday's explosion.

US President Barack Obama has ordered a series of meetings in Washington to examine the troubled eight-year war effort and is weighing a request for tens of thousands of additional US troops from his commander in Afghanistan.

It was the fifth assault on the Afghan capital in two months, as the Taliban brings its intensifying anti-government insurgency to the most heavily fortified part of the country.

Windows were blown from dozens of shops and survivors staggered around the bloodied streets in the diplomatic area, witnesses said.

An Indian diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said that "the dead would have been many more" had the blast occurred an hour later when the embassy's visa section was due to open.

Most of the dead and injured were rush-hour passers-by, he said, adding that the embassy would be closed for two weeks for repairs.

The head of the European Commission delegation to Afghanistan, Hansjorg Kretschmer, said: "The attack will not be a deterrent for Europe from being a key actor in the security sector and justice reform process."

An AFP reporter saw a massive crater in the middle of the road. The wreckage of a car appeared to have been blown 20 metres (yards) across the road, while the windows of up to 100 shops were blown out. Scene: Kabul residents recall blasts

The road was littered with debris, burned out vehicles and body parts. Bloodied scraps of clothing, including the pale blue burkas still worn by many Afghan women, were scattered across the site.