At least 17 civilians have been killed in multiple Taliban attacks in Afghanistan, officials said yesterday, underscoring increasing insecurity for ordinary people as foreign forces complete their withdrawal next year.
An insurgent attack on a road construction workers’ camp in Karukh District in the western province of Herat left nine workers dead overnight.
“The Taliban attacked their camp along the Herat-Badghis road while they were asleep last,” provincial police spokesman Abdul Rauf Ahmadi told reporters.
The workers were employed by a government-owned road construction company, he said.
A provincial government spokesman confirmed the deaths, blaming “enemies of Afghanistan,” a term used to refer to the Taliban.
A roadside bomb also killed five civilians, including women and children, and wounded three others in Helmand Province yesterday morning.
“A van hit a roadside bomb in the Marjah District of Helmand killing five civilians and wounding three,” Omar Zwak, the Helmand governor’s spokesman, told reporters.
They were on their way to Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, for shopping, he said.
Also in Helmand, an improvised explosive device killed three women in Musa Qala District on Friday, a police spokesman said.
Improvised explosive devices are the Taliban’s weapon of choice in their battle against the US-backed government and foreign forces, but they often kill and wound civilians.
According to recent UN report, civilian casualties in the Afghan war rose 23 percent in the first half of this year due to Taliban attacks and increased fighting between insurgents and government forces.
The increase reversed a decline last year and raised questions about how Afghan troops can protect civilians as US-led NATO soldiers withdraw from the 12-year war.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said 1,319 civilians died and 2,533 were injured as a result of the war from Jan. 1 to June 30, up 23 percent on the same period last year.
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
RSS