AFGHANISTAN: Suicide attack killed a British soldier and at least four Afghans in Kabul

A suicide bombing in Kabul killed a British soldier and at least four civilians, including an Afghan working for foreign troops on Monday (September 4, 2006). The bomber rammed his car into a NATO convoy on the highway leading from Kabul to the eastern city of Jalalabad. "Five civilians have been wounded and one foreign soldier has been killed and another has been wounded and four of our innocent afghans have been killed too," said Afghan police official Ali Shah Paktiyawal. Mean while International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) commander lieutenant General David Richards confirmed the dead of 200 Taliban fighters in Panjwai district of Kandahar province. "Well all these things are never scientific at this stage you can imagine the situation is pretty confused down there. So the report of more than 200 I am confident is correct, a lot of Taliban, sadly in many respects because no one likes such lose of life, have been killed, a number have been captured by afghan police and we are fighting g through a difficult position which needs clearing. And I expect the death toll to continue," said Richards. NATO launched Operation Medusa on Saturday (September 2), its biggest thrust against the Taliban since taking over southern Afghanistan on July 31 in the largest ground operation in its history. A NATO soldier was killed by friendly fire and several more wounded on Monday while another four Canadians died over the weekend. But Richards said other then those causalities there was no other reports of causalities among the foreign forces. "Well four ISAF soldiers were killed yesterday and you know that and another one in this accident this morning, but other wise luckily because it is tough fighting so far no other deaths have been reported," said Richards. Fighting across Afghanistan is the worst it has been since the hardline Islamist Taliban was ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2001. More than 2,000 people, most of them militants, along with scores of civilians and aid workers as well as hundreds of Afghan security personnel have been killed so far this year, while more than 115 foreign troops, have died.

ITN Source | September 4, 2006

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