A car bomb that exploded near a convoy carrying a provincial governor in eastern Afghanistan left nine wounded, officials said yesterday.
Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said that Arsallah Jamal, the governor of Khost Province, survived the blast in Khost city unhurt, but five of his bodyguards and four civilians were wounded.
US troops surrounded the area of Wednesday's blast and took the wounded to a hospital at their base near the city, said General Mohammad Ayub, the provincial police chief.
It was at least the third attempt to kill Jamal, who was returning from a visit to districts near the border with Pakistan when he was targeted on Wednesday.
The US-led coalition, meanwhile, said on Wednesday its forces clashed with suspected militants in central Afghanistan, killing several insurgents and detaining two.
The troops moved into compounds in Nirkh District, Wardak Province, late on Tuesday on intelligence that militants were hiding there, a coalition statement said.
Troops found weapons, ammunition and explosive materials, it said.
The clash happened in the same province where NATO and Afghan troops on Monday called in airstrikes during a battle that left up to 20 militants but also as many as 12 civilians dead, Afghan officials said.
Afghanistan this year has seen the heaviest fighting since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban. In all, more than 5,200 people have died in insurgency related violence, including some 700 civilians, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.
Meanwhile, NATO has reported progress in drumming up more troops for Afghanistan after nations leading the battle against the Taliban stepped up pressure on more reluctant European allies, but the US said significant shortfalls remained.
"I wouldn't say I'm satisfied," US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said. "But I would say that today was considerably more positive than I anticipated."
Diplomats said nine of the 26 NATO nations made new troop offers on the opening day of a meeting of defense ministers. Officials said it was too early to estimate the overall additional contribution to NATO's force of 41,000. But the alliance's top diplomat said the offers were significant because they would include new deployments to the most dangerous southern battlefields and more training teams to build up Afghanistan's army.
"I've noticed offers from nations, including for the southern part of Afghanistan," alliance Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference. "We have 90 percent filled of what we need, but ... there are still shortages."
Gates used the opening session of the two-day meeting to press other allies to send more troops to the southern front lines where troops from the US, Canada and Britain are taking the lead.
"What we need now are actions, deeds and a sense of urgency and commitment to back up our pledges and promises," he said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition