Thu, May 14, 2009 page5

• Afghan bomb attack kills seven

  UNDER ATTACK The Taliban said it had let loose 30 bombers in the town of Khost, some of whom carried out a series of attacks that killed up to nine Afghans on Tuesday

  • AFP
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  A suicide car bomb exploded outside a US military base in Afghanistan yesterday, killing seven laborers in the second deadly attack in the town of Khost in as many days, officials said.

  The insurgent Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the blast, saying the bomber was one of 30 it let loose in the eastern town, some of whom carried out a series of attacks on Tuesday that killed up to nine Afghans.

  Eleven of the attackers were killed on Tuesday, the defense ministry said.

  Yesterday’s bomb exploded at a gate where laborers were waiting to enter a large US military base called Salerno on the outskirts of the town.

  “Seven civilian laborers who were lining up at the entrance to get in for work were killed and 21 others, including three guards, were wounded,” the Afghan interior ministry said in a statement.

  Some of the wounded were in a critical condition, it said.

  A man who said he was a local member of the Taliban and named Salahuddin warned there would be more strikes on the city. The bomber at the base was one of 30 who had been sent into the town, he said.

  The threat was dismissed by Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary as an attempt to alarm the people of Khost.

  “We are on the ground to respond to and clear any potential threat, if any exists,” he said.

  The dusty town was shaken by Tuesday’s coordinated strikes that saw hundreds of Afghan and US forces deploy in the streets as gunfire and explosions rang out for several hours.

  Just 20km from Pakistan, the provincial capital is regularly hit by attacks blamed on the Taliban, who have support from extremist sanctuaries across the border.

  The Afghan defense ministry said 11 suicide bombers were killed in Khost on Tuesday in a nearly day-long standoff that Afghan officials said left between six and nine Afghans dead, and around 30 wounded.

  Militants, whom officials and witnesses said were dressed in burkas and uniforms, targeted the offices of the governor and the municipality.

  The interior ministry said there were 10 attackers, one of whom tried to ram the governor’s offices with a car bomb that killed four security guards.

  Nine targeted the nearby municipal headquarters — four blowing themselves up outside the building as the remainder stormed inside, apparently intent on taking hostages, it said.

  In other attacks overnight on Tuesday, insurgents fired several rockets at US bases in the adjoining province of Paktika, the US military said.

  Troops responded, killing six of the attackers as well as two civilians, the military said. None of the troops were hurt.

  The Taliban warned last month they would step up their attacks, targeting government officials as well as the Afghan and international forces trying to thwart the extremist threat that is also growing in Pakistan.

  The US has started deploying 21,000 reinforcements to Afghanistan and other nations are also scheduled to send extra troops to bolster security ahead of an Aug. 20 presidential election.

  Washington has replaced the top commander in Afghanistan with a former commander of special operations forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal, to make way for “new thinking” in the war.

  It has also put pressure on Pakistan to eliminate militant bases on its soil, where troops have launched a 17-day offensive against Taliban strongholds in three districts of its North West Frontier Province.

  The UN representative to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, said in Islamabad late on Tuesday there had been an increase in the number of foreign militants arriving in Afghanistan from Pakistan in recent months.

  “If you look at it in a longer perspective, over the last half-year, three-quarters of a year, there is no doubt there has been an increasing influx from Pakistan into Afghanistan,” he said. “That’s why of course, for us it’s important to see that the fight against the insurgency is also conducted inside Pakistan.”
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