Police killed 11 suspected Taliban insurgents in two separate operations in southern Afghanistan, an official said yesterday, a day after three bombings killed at least 20 people, including four Canadian soldiers, in the volatile region.
The suspected Taliban were killed in clashes in Helmand Province, Ghulam Rasool, a regional police chief, said. Four others were injured, he added.
Police recovered the militants' bodies and their weapons after the operations late on Monday and early yesterday, he said. There were no police casualties.
President Hamid Karzai condemned Monday's triple bombings as "heinous acts of terrorism [which] are against the values of Islam and humanity."
The deadliest of the attacks, in the usually calm western city of Herat, killed 12 people and wounded 17, including the deputy police chief, officials said.
Initially, officials said it was a suicide attack by a militant strapped with explosives and riding a motorbike.
But Karzai, speaking on Monday in New York, where he was attending the UN General Assembly, said it was not a suicide attack. He did not elaborate on how the attack took place.
A suicide car bombing in Kabul killed at least four policemen and wounded one officer and 10 civilians.
Afghanistan has been suffering the heaviest insurgent attacks since the Taliban was toppled in late 2001, and the bombings came a day after NATO ended a two-week offensive -- known as Operation Medusa -- against Taliban fighters in the south that the commander of NATO forces in the country, Lieutenant General David Richards, called a "significant success."
"It does appear that they are resorting to these despicable tactics after the pressure we have them under in their strongholds," NATO spokesperson Major Luke Knittig said.
Operation Medusa centered on southern Kandahar Province's Panjwayi district, where the first of Monday's bombings targeted a Canadian foot patrol delivering aid and reconstruction assistance, killing four soldiers and wounding an unspecified number of others, the Canadian military said.
About 25 civilians were wounded in the blast, NATO said.
The district suffered heavy damage in the NATO offensive.
A spokesman for the Taliban claimed that the group had carried out the attack
"Fifty to 60 soldiers were patrolling on the main street when a man on a bicycle stopped and blew himself up near the forces," said Fazel Mohammed, a farmer who lives near the blast site.
At least 36 Canadian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002.
Five died during Operation Medusa, in which NATO estimated it killed at least 510 insurgents.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was