A wave of attacks killed six US troops and at least a dozen civilians in Afghanistan’s volatile south and east, as US reinforcements moving into Taliban-dominated areas face up to the fierce resistance they expected.
Increased US-led military operations in the southern province of Kandahar are aimed at trying to break the Taliban’s grip where they are strongest by delivering security and government services to win over Afghan people.
PHOTO: EPA
The hope is once the tide begins to turn, more control can be handed to Afghan forces without fear the Taliban might again seize power, bring back its harsh interpretation of Islamic law and resume sheltering al-Qaeda terrorist leaders. Then US troops could begin withdrawing next July, in line with a timeline set by US President Barack Obama.
Senior US military officers have warned, however, the fight in the Taliban’s spiritual birthplace would lead to a rise in casualties for troops. Last month was the deadliest month of the nearly nine-year-old war, and this month has kept pace.
On Saturday, two US troops died in the south in separate roadside bombings. In Kandahar city, a remote-controlled bomb on a motorcycle exploded, setting cars ablaze and shattering windows at a popular shopping center. The provincial government said one passer-by was also killed.
Other US service members died in the east: One as a result of small-arms fire, another by a roadside bomb, a third during an insurgent attack and the last in an accidental explosion.
Their deaths raised to 23 the number of US troops killed so far this month. Last month, 103 international troops died, 60 of them from the US.
In Saturday’s deadliest attack, eastern border province of Paktia, unidentified gunmen killed 11 Pakistanis who had crossed into Afghanistan to buy supplies, according to Rohullah Samon, spokesman for the provincial governor.
Samon said 11 Shiite minority Muslim tribesmen died and three people, including a child, were wounded in the ambush of their minibus in Chamkani district.
In other developments, a district governor and 11 policemen have been killed in Taliban attacks, authorities said yesterday.
Six border police officers were killed when rebels stormed their post on the Tajikistan border in Kunduz Province late on Saturday, local official Mohammad Ayoub said.
The attack was “facilitated by two policemen linked to the Taliban,” he said.
In neighboring Qala-i-Zal district, rebels killed the district chief on Saturday using a remote-controlled bomb, a local government spokesman said.
In the remote northeastern province of Badakhshan, another Taliban bomb on Saturday killed five police officers while on patrol, the interior ministry said in a separate statement.
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