Several bomb explosions shook different provinces of Afghanistan
on Sunday, claiming lives of 11 persons including four US soldiers,
officials said.
"Four US service members were killed in an improvised explosive
device attack today," the US military said in a press release.
"The service members were traveling in an up-armored,
high-mobility, multipurpose wheeled vehicle in the Pech Valley,
Kunar Province, when the incident occurred. The patrol was
conducting route-clearance operations to keep the road open to
civilian and military traffic," it added.
On Sunday morning, a bloody suicide bomb attack against Chairman
of the Upper House Mujaddadi in the capital Kabul claimed four
persons' lives including the attacker, and injured three others.
The chairman was slightly injured in his hands.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly condemned the attack and
said the attack on Mujaddedi is "an attack on Afghans'
independence, an attack against the Afghan voice, an attack against
peace in Afghanistan."
On the same day, two bombs exploded in the southern Helmand
province.
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"This noon the vehicle full of Afghan police was exploded in a
remote control bomb in Dishu district. One police was killed, two
others were injured. These police are in charge of the eradication
of poppy land in the province," Gen. Mohammad Ayob, the deputy
provincial police chief of Helmand, told Xinhua.
Another official in Helmand said an explosion in Khannishin
district claimed lives of two civilians and injured another
one.
These explosions, according to the official, happened on the
same day with the visit of US ambassador to the province.
As the former stronghold of Taliban militants, Helmand has
become the hotspot of the militancy. The NATO-led ISAF
(International Security Assistance Force) forces have decided to
deploy about 6,000 more troops in Afghanistan especially in the
southern area.
The first ISAF additional troops of about 150 British soldiers
arrived in the troubled Helmand in the middle of February.
In another bomb explosion in the central Ghazni province Sunday
targeting the Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers, the vehicle of
ANA was damaged, but fortunately no casualty among the soldiers,
Abdul Rahman Sarjang, the provincial police chief, said.
Taliban militants, who vowed to drive out all the foreign
troops, have intensified attacks since the beginning of this year.
Till now more than 100 persons including 11 US soldiers and two
Canadian troops have been killed in the Taliban-linked
militancy.
(Xinhua News Agency March 13, 2006)
