A NATO soldier was killed by insurgents yesterday in eastern Afghanistan, the alliance said, as an Afghan government official was gunned down in the southern city of Kandahar.
NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the soldier, whose nationality was not revealed, “died following an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan.”
The total number of foreign soldiers to die in the Afghan war so far this year is 617, according to an AFP count based on icasualties.org’s tally. Last year’s total was 521.
In Kandahar, where the insurgency is concentrated, the province’s deputy director for education, Ahmadullah, was shot dead near his home yesterday by armed men on a motorbike, his boss Najibullah Ahmadi said.
He said that Ahmadullah had been walking home with his young daughter from a bakery.
The girl, whose age was not immediately known, “is not hurt, she’s OK,” said Ahmadi, the provincial education director.
Government officials have been specifically targeted by militants throughout this year, especially in Kandahar, which the Taliban regard as their territory.
According to media reports, the assassinations have created a climate of fear in the city and a dearth of people willing to take government posts.
The US and NATO have more than 150,000 troops in Afghanistan, with efforts concentrated in and around Kandahar in an effort to rout the insurgents from their key stronghold.
In eastern Ghazni Province, an increasingly hot insurgency spot, officials said the bodies of four police officers seized by militants during an attack earlier this week had been found.
The dead were among 19 police officers who went missing on Monday following a Taliban attack on the province’s remote Khogyani District, said Delawar Zahid, the provincial police chief.
Contrary to earlier official denials, he said the Taliban had briefly taken the district, but that it was reclaimed by pro-government forces after a long fight.
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