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Afghanistan attacks kill 15Article from: Agence France-PresseFont size: Decrease Increase Email article: Email Print article: Print From correspondents in Kabul July 19, 2007 07:20am
TALIBAN suicide bombings and attacks left more than 15 people dead in Afghanistan, officials said today as Britain urged its NATO allies to commit more troops to avoid the country failing.
One of the suicide blasts targeted Turkish NATO soldiers in the capital Kabul, wounding a member of the Turkish special forces and an Afghan civilian, Afghan officials and the foreign ministry in Ankara said.
The ministry said the bomber "apparently tried to enter an armoured vehicle in the Turkish convoy, but failed since the doors were locked and blew himself up next to the vehicle".
The remains and torn-off limbs of the attacker lay scattered at the blast site in western Kabul, an AFP reporter witnessed.
Another suicide bomber, wearing a police uniform, blew himself up at a provincial police headquarters in southeastern Afghanistan's Khost city, killing three policemen and a civilian and wounding eight others, police said.
The bomber and another militant in the same disguise approached the gates of the building and one opened fire at police guards.
Officers returned fire, killing one attacker, and the second blew himself up, they said.
Separately, a police convoy on the Kandahar-Kabul road was hit by gunfire and rocket propelled grenades from insurgents in the southern province of Zabul, killing six police, provincial police chief General Mohammad Yaqub said.
Gen Yaqub blamed the killings on the "enemies of Afghanistan", a term often used by authorities to refer to the Taliban militants who were forced from power in late 2001 by the US-led invasion that followed the September 11 attacks.
Another policeman was killed overnight in a clash in eastern Nuristan province, governor Tamim Nuristani said, denying Taliban claims that the rebels had captured the two districts.
Taliban rebels also attacked a private road construction company today in southeastern Paktia province, killing an Afghan and a Philippines national and wounding four others, police said.
Also gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead an Afghan working for a local nongovernmental organisation and his driver were gunned down today morning in the southeastern province of Logar, officials said.
In a separate incident four militants were killed, several wounded and two captured following a gun-battle in the southern province of Kandahar, police said.
Taliban militants fighting national, NATO and US led foreign troops also frequently attack construction crews, aid agencies, United Nations officials and Afghan government employees.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force has about 37,000 troops from 37 nations in Afghanistan, while the separate US-led coalition is about 14,000-strong.
But British Defence Secretary Des Browne today backed a parliamentary committee report which said a far larger force and increased development aid was needed to stabilise the troubled country.
"I agree with the report's recommendation that NATO countries need to do more," Mr Browne told the BBC.
The committee said ISAF was two battalions short of the requirement set by NATO commanders while some countries continued to impose restrictions on their troops' operations.
NATO's civilian spokesman in Afghanistan, Nicholas Lunt, said the focus should be on strengthening Afghanistan's nascent security forces.
"If part of the solution to the problems that Afghanistan is facing is about the additional troops, then we believe the long-term solution is going to be coming from more and better Afghan troops and more and better Afghan police," he said.
Skeptic - I found this article today. Is a common islamic attack. many of the "terrorist" attacks in eurpope like this ?? This really says it all, some people like to blow other people up entirely. How did you know about the irish bombing london if we never heard about it ?
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