A Taliban suicide bomber driving a truck attacked an advance NATO combat post in central Afghanistan, wounding 89 people including 50 US soldiers, the US Army said yesterday.
News of Saturday’s attack came as the world marked the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed almost 3,000 people in the US and led to the invasion of Afghanistan and toppling at the end of 2001 of the Taliban.
US Army spokesman Major David Eastburn said 50 American soldiers and 15 Afghans were among the injured. It was not clear who the others hurt in the attack were.
“It happened at 5:15pm on Saturday. It detonated near the entry point at a combat outpost, resulting in 89 wounded in action and a 20-foot [6m] hole in the wall,” he said, citing “preliminary reports.”
NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said: “A Taliban suicide bomber detonated a large vehicle-borne improvised-explosive device at the entrance of Combat Outpost Sayed Abad, Wardak province, yesterday [Saturday].”
The Taliban claimed responsibility on their Web site for the attack.
The post-Sept. 11 invasion of Afghanistan by the US and its allies “will remain a permanent stigma on the face of Western democracy,” the Taliban said on Saturday to mark the attacks on the US.
The Islamists, who refused to give up al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden following Sept. 11, said the people of Afghanistan had “endless stamina for a long war” and would “send the Americans to the dustbin of history.”
In a long statement issued in Persian and English, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan said the attacks on the US in 2001 had been used, unjustly, as a “pretext” for the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is the name the Taliban gave themselves during their rule in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
Speaking at a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11 at the US embassy in Kabul, the commander of foreign forces, US General John Allen, said: “The last 10 years have not been easy, both the international coalition and Afghans have endured much hardship.
“We have suffered setbacks and difficult moments, to be sure there are challenges ahead but today, on this sacred day of remembrance, I can say with confidence that together we’re on the path of success in Afghanistan,” he said.
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