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Insurgents kill 12 in Afghanistan
Source: Agencies |
December 20, 2010, Monday
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TALIBAN insurgents launched attacks in Kabul and a major northern city, killing a combined 12 security personnel yesterday in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the 2010 death toll for foreign soldiers climbed to 700, almost a third of the total killed in nearly a decade of war.
Two militants wearing suicide vests attacked a bus carrying Afghan army officers in Kabul, killing five and wounding nine, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault, the first major attack in Kabul since May, when six foreign soldiers were killed by a suicide car bomb.
In the north, seven Afghan soldiers and police were killed when at least four suicide bombers entered an army recruitment center in the city of Kunduz, visited a day earlier by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Defense Ministry said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement the attacks were a "major and unforgiving crime... (by) Afghanistan's enemies opposing the strengthening of the Afghan security forces."
Afghan forces make an easier target than better-equipped foreign soldiers, who are usually inside tightly guarded compounds or heavily armored vehicles. But with both NATO and Karzai keen to build up domestic forces to speed the departure of foreign troops, they are also a strategic target for insurgents.
In Kabul, insurgents wearing explosive vests opened fire on a bus carrying the officers on the main Jalalabad road, the site of NATO and Afghan army bases and several similar attacks.
One attacker blew himself up. The other was shot by police before he detonated his explosives. Television pictures showed a burned-out bus.
In Kunduz, two attackers blew themselves up at the entrance to the army recruitment center in the morning, but a gunbattle raged into the afternoon, with at least two others who got inside, a witness said.
Artillery rounds sporadically hit the building, from which around 40 soldiers had escaped, while people inside periodically returned small arms fire, the witness said.
"Seven Afghan security forces (policemen and soldiers) have been killed and 15 wounded. The fighting is still going on," said deputy Kunduz governor Mohammadullah Danesh.
The grim milestone for foreign troops was reached after a member of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan. ISAF gave no other details.
A total of 521 foreign troops were killed in 2009, previously the worst year of the war, but operations against the Taliban-led insurgency have intensified over the past 18 months.
At least 2,270 foreign soldiers have been killed since 2001, according to figures kept by Reuters and monitoring website www.iCasualties.org, roughly two-thirds of them Americans.
Afghan troops and police have suffered far higher casualties, but the government does not release exact figures. Civilian casualties are also at record levels this year.
A war strategy review released by US President Barack Obama last week found NATO-led forces were making headway against the Taliban, but serious challenges remained.
Meanwhile, the 2010 death toll for foreign soldiers climbed to 700, almost a third of the total killed in nearly a decade of war.
Two militants wearing suicide vests attacked a bus carrying Afghan army officers in Kabul, killing five and wounding nine, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault, the first major attack in Kabul since May, when six foreign soldiers were killed by a suicide car bomb.
In the north, seven Afghan soldiers and police were killed when at least four suicide bombers entered an army recruitment center in the city of Kunduz, visited a day earlier by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Defense Ministry said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement the attacks were a "major and unforgiving crime... (by) Afghanistan's enemies opposing the strengthening of the Afghan security forces."
Afghan forces make an easier target than better-equipped foreign soldiers, who are usually inside tightly guarded compounds or heavily armored vehicles. But with both NATO and Karzai keen to build up domestic forces to speed the departure of foreign troops, they are also a strategic target for insurgents.
In Kabul, insurgents wearing explosive vests opened fire on a bus carrying the officers on the main Jalalabad road, the site of NATO and Afghan army bases and several similar attacks.
One attacker blew himself up. The other was shot by police before he detonated his explosives. Television pictures showed a burned-out bus.
In Kunduz, two attackers blew themselves up at the entrance to the army recruitment center in the morning, but a gunbattle raged into the afternoon, with at least two others who got inside, a witness said.
Artillery rounds sporadically hit the building, from which around 40 soldiers had escaped, while people inside periodically returned small arms fire, the witness said.
"Seven Afghan security forces (policemen and soldiers) have been killed and 15 wounded. The fighting is still going on," said deputy Kunduz governor Mohammadullah Danesh.
The grim milestone for foreign troops was reached after a member of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan. ISAF gave no other details.
A total of 521 foreign troops were killed in 2009, previously the worst year of the war, but operations against the Taliban-led insurgency have intensified over the past 18 months.
At least 2,270 foreign soldiers have been killed since 2001, according to figures kept by Reuters and monitoring website www.iCasualties.org, roughly two-thirds of them Americans.
Afghan troops and police have suffered far higher casualties, but the government does not release exact figures. Civilian casualties are also at record levels this year.
A war strategy review released by US President Barack Obama last week found NATO-led forces were making headway against the Taliban, but serious challenges remained.
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