Four US-led troops killed in Afghan war Sat Nov 13, 2010 4:41PM

US-led soldiers in Afghanistan Two separate attacks have killed at least four US-led soldiers in Afghanistan amid a surge in Taliban attacks against the foreign forces in the war-torn country.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) says three soldiers were killed after a militant attack in the country's volatile south.

The nationalities of the soldiers and the exact location of the attacks have not yet been disclosed.

Earlier Afghan officials reported the death of one American soldier in Kunar Province, in an exchange of fire with Taliban militants.

The Taliban claim ten American soldiers were killed and a helicopter was downed during the attack.

Also on Saturday Taliban militants attacked a US military base in the eastern city of Jalalabad, claiming afterwards to have killed dozens of American and Afghan soldiers during the ambush.

At least 636 foreign troops have lost their lives in Afghanistan so far, making 2010 the deadliest year for US-led forces since the 2001 invasion of the country.

The rising number of casualties of the US-led foreign forces has increased opposition to the Afghan war in the countries which have contributed troops to the mission.

JR/HGH/MMN

Afghan Taliban-linked activities leave 16 dead

by Abdul Haleem

KABUL, Nov. 13, 2010 (Xinhua) --

Taliban-linked anti-(NATO and) government activities elsewhere in the northern and eastern Afghanistan claimed 16 lives including eight insurgents on a single day on Saturday.

The militants in the latest waves of violent attacks exploded an explosive-laden motorbike in the northern Kunduz province leaving eight persons including four personnel of Afghan Local Police (ALP) dead and injured 18 others, all civilians.

"The terrorists planted explosive device on a motorbike and detonated it by remote controller in a crowded bazaar in Imam Sahib district today at around 10:00 a.m. local time, as a result four personnel of Afghan Local Police (ALP) and four civilians were killed," district governor Mohammad Ayub Haqyar told Xinhua.

Afghan Local Police is a community police force established months ago to defend their villages against Taliban attacks and their influence to rural areas.

The militants also at 05:00 a.m. local time stormed the only civilian military airport in Jalalabad, capital of eastern Nangarhar province, and inflicting huge casualties, according to the outfit's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

Meanwhile, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), in a statement released to media, said that eight insurgents were killed during the counter operation launched by Afghan and the NATO-led forces.

"According to initial reports, eight insurgents were killed by the combined force. One was wearing a suicide vest," the statement added.

Initial reports indicate no ANA or ISAF service members were killed, the statement further said.

In the meantime, spokesman for Nangarhar provincial administration Ahmad Zia Abdulzai in talks with Xinhua confirmed that at least six attackers were killed.

"The security forces repelled the attack and army commandos and police in collaboration with NATO-led forces launched a search operation after militants stormed a checkpoint of airport this morning at around 5 a.m. local and so far six attackers have killed," Abdulzai told Xinhua.

On the other hand, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in talks with media via telephone from unknown location said that the outfit had sent 14 suicide bomber to the airport in Jalalabad killing several Afghan and foreign soldiers, a claim rejected by Abdulzai as mere propaganda.

Both Taliban and security forces would intensify their attacks to grab more lands and fortify their positions before snowfall and the onset of harsh winter.

Editor: Wang Guanqun

Suicide bomber strikes in Kabul

By HAMID SHALIZI | REUTERS

Arab News, Published: Nov 12, 2010 21:53 Updated: Nov 12, 2010 21:53

KABUL:

A suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy near the new Parliament building in the Afghan capital on Friday, police and the coalition said, the first attack in Kabul in three months after security was increased.

Police said an Afghan soldier and one member of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were wounded in the attack on the city's outskirts, although ISAF did not confirm one of its troops had been hurt.

Afghan authorities clamped a “ring of steel” across the city before parliamentary elections in mid-September, with checkpoints manned by armed police still in place across parts of Kabul.

While the capital has been relatively quiet, violence across the rest of Afghanistan has reached its worst level since the Taleban were overthrown by US-backed Afghan forces in 2001.

Civilian and military casualties are at record levels, despite the presence of about 150,000 foreign troops.

Afghanistan will top the agenda at a NATO summit in Lisbon next week. Washington will also review its Afghanistan strategy in December amid sagging support for the drawn-out conflict.

A police source said Friday's attack had been carried out by a suicide car bomber. ISAF described the attack as a “vehicle-borne improvised explosive device.” A witness said the mangled remains of the car used in the bombing lay in the middle of the main road near the new Parliament on Kabul's outskirts, with debris strewn over a wide area.

A damaged ISAF Humvee vehicle was pulled off to the side. An ISAF base is near the site of the blast.

The Taleban had vowed to disrupt the Sept. 18 vote but the ballot went ahead, although attacks were reported across the country on polling day and 17 people were killed.

One rocket fired by insurgents landed in Kabul in the predawn hours of election day but caused no major damage or injuries.

The last serious attack in Kabul was on Aug. 10, when two suicide bombers killed up to five Afghans in a residential area of central Kabul.

One of the suicide bombers blew himself up at the gate of a compound used by foreigners. Saturday will mark the ninth anniversary of the fall of the Taleban regime in Kabul, who were blamed for sheltering Al-Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was en route for Afghanistan on Friday on a surprise visit, his spokesman said. The previously unannounced trip could be Kouchner's swansong as France's top diplomat. The 71-year-old former humanitarian leader is widely expected to lose his job next week when President Nicolas Sarkozy reshuffles his Cabinet. “He'll meet Afghan officials. He'll be received by President Hamid Karzai to talk about Franco-Afghan ties and the situation in Afghanistan ahead of the NATO summit in Lisbon,” ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.

NATO leaders are to meet on Friday and Saturday next week, and Karzai is to be one of their guests. France has around 3,750 soldiers in Afghanistan fighting insurgents and training Afghan forces as part of the US-led NATO coalition, and more than 50 French soldiers have died during the mission.

Insurgents attack NATO base in eastern Afghanistan

By Rahim Faiez, Associated Press

Saturday, November 13, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan –

A group of would-be suicide bombers tried to storm a major NATO base in eastern Afghanistan early Saturday but were repelled before they could enter, officials said.

A bomb hidden in a motorbike also exploded on a busy street in the Imam Sahib district of the northern province of Kunduz, killing 10 people, including a police commander and three children, according to the Interior Ministry.

Separately, NATO reported that insurgents killed three coalition service members Saturday in an attack in southern Afghanistan. The coalition did not provide any further details or the nationalities of the service members killed.

The attacks, which occurred a day after a suicide car bomber targeted a U.S. convoy outside Kabul, were the latest show of force by the Taliban as the U.S.-led alliance steps up pressure against the insurgents in the southern stronghold of Kandahar.

Saturday's assault on the NATO base — the second against it in five months — underscored the Taliban's ability to strike at the core of the NATO mission and to enjoy relative freedom of movement across the country despite a series of coalition offensives and an infusion of thousands additional international forces.

The insurgents attacked an Afghan army checkpoint outside the Jalalabad base at dawn, sparking a gunbattle that lasted at least two hours as NATO helicopters fired from above.

Six insurgents were killed, including two who were wearing bomb-laden suicide vests, according to the international military coalition. No NATO or Afghan troops were killed, the coalition said.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said there were 14 attackers and 11 of them were killed, though the insurgent group typically gives inflated numbers.

An Associated Press photographer at the scene saw three dead bodies laid out, all in Afghan army uniforms, which militants often wear as a disguise. An AK-47 assault rifle, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and a grenade were laid out nearby.

NATO said it would not be deterred by the attack, the second against an eastern outpost in the past two weeks. Insurgents attacked an observation post in Paktika province on Oct. 30, and NATO said at least 40 Taliban fighters were killed before the attackers were repelled.

The coalition "will continue to work with our Afghan partners to establish a safe and peaceful Afghanistan," NATO spokesman U.S. Army Col. Rafael Torres.

The base attacked Saturday was also targeted in June with a car bomb, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons although the militants again failed to breach its defenses. Eight militants were killed in that attack. The base is about 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of Kabul on the main road between the Afghan capital and the Pakistan border.

With NATO focusing its counterinsurgency campaign in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, the security situation in the east and north has steadily been deteriorating.

The bombing in Kunduz apparently was targeting a senior police officer as he drove past. Commander Mohammad Manan and one of his bodyguards were among those killed, said Abdul Qayum Ebrahimi, the district police chief.

The Taliban spokesman last week boasted in an open letter to the U.S. Congress last week that the movement had adapted as NATO poured thousands of troops into the south.

"We opened new fronts in the north and east of the country and beefed up our operations there. You launched operations for the capture of rural areas, we infiltrated into different cities including the cities of Kandahar and Kabul, expanding our operations there," the letter from Mujahid said.

In Kabul, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner met with the Afghan president. The meeting comes ahead of a summit in Lisbon later this month where the main topic of discussion will be shifting authority for security to Afghan forces.

Kouchner will also visit French forces in Afghanistan.

France has about 3,750 troops in the country.

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Associated Press photographer Rahmat Gul contributed to this report from Jalalabad, Afghanistan.