Suspected Taliban gunmen ambushed a convoy of civilian trucks carrying vehicles to the US military in southern Afghanistan, killing three of the drivers, an official said yesterday.
The attack came amid a wave of bombings, shootings and mine blasts which have killed or injured several Afghan and US soldiers in recent weeks. Violence had dropped sharply during the harsh Afghan winter.
"This shows that some in the Taliban or other anti-government insurgents will continue to try to destabilize Afghanistan through violent acts," US spokeswoman Lieutenant Cindy Moore said. "There is still a threat out there."
The gunmen attacked the trucks on Friday after they crossed the Pakistani border at Spin Boldak, 90km south of Kandahar city, Spin Boldak District Chief Fazeluddin Agha told reporters.
Three of the drivers -- two Pakistanis and one Afghan -- were killed in a hail of gunfire that severely damaged the trucks and two of the military vehicles, Agha said. He did not identify the types of vehicles being transported.
The fourth driver escaped and told authorities that four gunmen had appeared in the road in front of the convoy and opened fire, Agha said.
Agha blamed Taliban militants for the attack, but provided no evidence to support his claim. Purported Taliban officials have in the past claimed responsibility for attacks on trucks supplying US bases.
Police arrived at the scene too late to make any arrests, Agha said.
Two witnesses who traveled the same route told reporters in Kandahar that they had seen the stricken trucks surrounded by Afghan security forces.
US commanders insist the insurgency is unraveling in the face of American operations and Afghan offers of reconciliation, while warning that a hard core of Taliban militants will fight on more than three years after the hardline militia was ousted for harboring al-Qaeda.
Moore had no information on Friday's incident, but said the "number and severity of attacks" had increased and that the 17,000 US forces in the country would "aggressively pursue those seeking to destabilize the government."
On Wednesday, an apparent car bomb exploded prematurely in eastern Afghanistan, killing the driver, just as US first lady Laura Bush traveled to Kabul on a surprise visit.
The day before, six Afghan and two US soldiers were injured in two ambushes, while a roadside bomb on March 28 damaged a Canadian diplomatic vehicle.
Moore said several more homemade bombs had been discovered by Afghan and US forces in recent days near the Pakistani border.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion