4 US Servicemen Killed, Many Injured in Plane Shot Down, 9 Afghani Civilians Killed in Attacks, April 9-10, 2010

4 US Servicemen Killed, Many Injured in Plane Shot Down, 9 Afghani Civilians Killed in Attacks

April 9-10, 2010

Six Afghans killed in blasts, attack on Indian company

Earth Times, Sat, 10 Apr 2010 12:59:59 GMT

By : dpa

Kabul -

Six civilians were killed in separate blasts in Afghanistan on Saturday, while Taliban fighters also attacked an Indian construction company in the east of the country, officials said.

A woman was killed and two girls were injured when a rocket fired by the Taliban hit their home in the village of Dobandi in the Chardarah district of northern Kunduz province, district governor Abdul Wahid Omarkhel said.

The attack came as Afghan troops backed by US special forces were conducting an operation against the Taliban fighters in the area, he said. Last Friday, three German soldiers were killed and eight injured in a Taliban attack in the district.

Early Saturday morning, Taliban fighters attacked an Indian road construction company in Domanda district. Several vehicles were burned, but there were no casualties, the Interior Ministry said.

The attackers fled the area when Afghan security forces arrived at the scene, it said.

Taliban fighters often attack foreign development organizations in the country in an apparent bid to discourage foreign involvement in the country.

According to a separate statement from the ministry Saturday, three civilians were killed and eight injured when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle in Keshk-e-Kuhna district of western province of Herat the previous day. A similar attack in southern Kandahar province on the same day claimed the lives of two civilians, according to the ministry.

The NATO military on Saturday said it was still investigating the cause of a military plane crash in which three US soldiers and a civilian were killed and numerous others were injured.

Kunduz is one of the most volatile northern provinces, but comparatively more peaceful than southern and eastern provinces. Thousands of additional US troops are expected to be deployed to the region in the summer to bolster Afghan and German troops and bring the overall number of international forces to 150,000.

Around 4,500 German troops are stationed in the northern region that includes Kunduz, as part of the current 120,000-strong NATO-led force.

US loses first Osprey in Afghanistan, 4 dead

By Robert H. Reid, Associated Press Writer –

Fri Apr 9, 2010, 8:51 pm ET

KABUL –

A U.S. Air Force Osprey went down in southeastern Afghanistan, killing three service members and one civilian contractor in the first crash of the costly tilt-rotor aircraft in a combat zone, the U.S. military said.

It's unclear what caused the crash of the U.S. military's latest generation transport aircraft — beset for years by cost overruns and design flaws.

A NATO statement Friday said "numerous other service members" were injured when the aircraft crashed late Thursday seven miles (11 kilometers) from Qalat, capital of Zabul province about 200 miles (300 kilometers) southwest of Kabul.

A Taliban spokesman said Taliban fighters shot down the aircraft. NATO said the cause was still under investigation. A Pentagon spokesman, Marine Maj. Shawn Turner, said it was the first time that an Osprey, which take off and land like helicopters and cost nearly $70 million each, has crashed during operations in a war zone.

Also Friday, a roadside bomb struck a small bus in the western province of Herat, killing three civilians and wounding five, the head of the regional border police, Malam Khan Noorzae, said. Noorzae said a joint NATO-Afghan force had traveled along the same route the day before as part of anti-insurgency operations.

___

Associated Press writers Noor Khan in Kandahar, Amir Shah, Christopher Bodeen and Slobodan Lekic in Kabul and Pauline Jelinek in Washington contributed to this story.

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.