A suicide attacker blew himself up in a northern Afghan city yesterday, killing seven people, including three German soldiers and wounding 17, the deputy provincial police chief said.
The attack happened in the center of Kunduz at approximately 10am, General Noor Mohammad Omarkhail said.
"We do know there was an attack in Kunduz and we do know there was some ISAF casualties, which means dead or wounded,'' NATO spokesman Major John Thomas said.
Omarkhail said two German soldiers and a translator were wounded. Four civilians were killed and 14 wounded in the blast.
Elsewhere, militants attacked US-led coalition and Afghan forces less than 120km northeast of Kabul, sparking a rare gunbattle close to the capital that killed an estimated 20 militants, officials said yesterday.
Afghan and allied forces were on combat patrol late on Friday in the al-Asay Valley in Kapisa Province, which borders Kabul Province, when they were ambushed, the coalition said.
The militants placed roadside bombs along the route in a "failed attempt to trap" coalition forces, a coalition statement said. Fighter aircraft fired on the militants, the statement said.
The coalition said that "several dozen enemy fighters were estimated killed" during the fight and that there were no reports of civilian casualties.
Kapisa Province Governor Abdul Satar Murad said about 20 fighters were killed and unconfirmed reports of civilian casualties.
While fighting in southern and eastern Afghanistan has picked up in recent weeks, battles so close to the capital are considerably rarer.
A joint US-Afghan operation in Kapisa in November was credited with scattering several hundred fighters who had gathered in the region's valleys and mountainous terrain and who threatened the capital and the nearby US base at Bagram.
That operation also busted a suicide cell that had launched several attacks in Kabul last fall.
The coalition, meanwhile, said about 20 Taliban fighters ambushed coalition soldiers and Afghan police patrolling near the Pakistan border in the eastern province of Paktia on Friday, sparking an eight-hour battle in which "a significant number of insurgents" were killed.
Troops called in airstrikes that destroyed "several enemy positions," the coalition said.
Deputy provincial police chief Ghulam Dastageer said the clash killed up to 60 fighters, though the only proof he offered was that officials found 60 abandoned weapons at the battle site.
He said it was possible there were Chechen, Arab and Pakistani fighters among the insurgents.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A plan by Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party to cap the population at 10 million has the backing of almost half the country, according to a poll before an expected vote next year. The party, which has long campaigned against immigration, argues that too-fast population growth is overwhelming housing, transport and public services. The level of support comes despite the government urging voters to reject it, warning that strict curbs would damage the economy and prosperity, as Swiss companies depend on foreign workers. The poll by newspaper group Tamedia/20 Minuten and released yesterday showed that 48 percent of the population plan to vote
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
RSS