Police killed 11 suspected Taliban insurgents in two separate operations in southern Afghanistan, an official said yesterday, a day after three bombings killed at least 20 people, including four Canadian soldiers, in the volatile region.
The suspected Taliban were killed in clashes in Helmand Province, Ghulam Rasool, a regional police chief, said. Four others were injured, he added.
Police recovered the militants' bodies and their weapons after the operations late on Monday and early yesterday, he said. There were no police casualties.
President Hamid Karzai condemned Monday's triple bombings as "heinous acts of terrorism [which] are against the values of Islam and humanity."
The deadliest of the attacks, in the usually calm western city of Herat, killed 12 people and wounded 17, including the deputy police chief, officials said.
Initially, officials said it was a suicide attack by a militant strapped with explosives and riding a motorbike.
But Karzai, speaking on Monday in New York, where he was attending the UN General Assembly, said it was not a suicide attack. He did not elaborate on how the attack took place.
A suicide car bombing in Kabul killed at least four policemen and wounded one officer and 10 civilians.
Afghanistan has been suffering the heaviest insurgent attacks since the Taliban was toppled in late 2001, and the bombings came a day after NATO ended a two-week offensive -- known as Operation Medusa -- against Taliban fighters in the south that the commander of NATO forces in the country, Lieutenant General David Richards, called a "significant success."
"It does appear that they are resorting to these despicable tactics after the pressure we have them under in their strongholds," NATO spokesperson Major Luke Knittig said.
Operation Medusa centered on southern Kandahar Province's Panjwayi district, where the first of Monday's bombings targeted a Canadian foot patrol delivering aid and reconstruction assistance, killing four soldiers and wounding an unspecified number of others, the Canadian military said.
About 25 civilians were wounded in the blast, NATO said.
The district suffered heavy damage in the NATO offensive.
A spokesman for the Taliban claimed that the group had carried out the attack
"Fifty to 60 soldiers were patrolling on the main street when a man on a bicycle stopped and blew himself up near the forces," said Fazel Mohammed, a farmer who lives near the blast site.
At least 36 Canadian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002.
Five died during Operation Medusa, in which NATO estimated it killed at least 510 insurgents.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
CHINESE ICBM: The missile landed near the EEZ of French Polynesia, much to the surprise and concern of the president, who sent a letter of protest to Beijing Fijian President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere called for “respect for our region” and a stop to missile tests in the Pacific Ocean, after China launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). In a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Katonivere recalled the Pacific Ocean’s history as a nuclear weapons testing ground, and noted Wednesday’s rare launch by China of an ICBM. “There was a unilateral test firing of a ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean. We urge respect for our region and call for cessation of such action,” he said. The ICBM, carrying a dummy warhead, was launched by the
As violence between Israel and Hezbollah escalates, Iran is walking a tightrope by supporting Hezbollah without being dragged into a full-blown conflict and playing into its enemy’s hands. With a focus on easing its isolation and reviving its battered economy, Iran is aware that war could complicate efforts to secure relief from crippling sanctions. Cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah, sparked by Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year, has intensified, especially after last week’s sabotage on Hezbollah’s communications that killed 39 people. Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon followed, killing hundreds. Hezbollah retaliated with rocket barrages. Despite the surge in
RSS