KABUL, 21 February 2007 — Afghan forces supported by NATO recaptured a town in western Afghanistan yesterday that briefly fell to Taleban militants, while troops in the east thwarted a suicide bomber who blew himself up at a city hospital, officials said. About 200 Afghan police and soldiers, backed by the alliance, retook the remote town of Bakwa in Farah province without resistance early yesterday, said provincial Gov. Muhajuddin Baluch.
Troops were searching the area for the militants who held the town briefly on Monday after police fled, he said. It was the second time this month that the government has lost control of a district in the region.
Meanwhile, a suicide attacker blew himself up at a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open an emergency ward at the main government hospital in the city of Khost. Afghan security forces stopped the attacker, who was disguised as a health worker, from approaching a crowd of about 150 people who had gathered for the ceremony, provincial Gov. Arsalah Jamal said.
US troops took the man away, but he tried to escape and American soldiers shot him in the leg. As the crowd took cover, the attacker detonated a bomb, killing himself, Jamal said. Two American soldiers and an Afghan hospital employee were wounded, he said.
Sgt. 1st Class Dean Welch, a NATO spokesman, said a number of NATO troops were wounded in the blast, but the extent of their injuries was not immediately known. He did not give their nationalities. Most of the NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan are American.
Meanwhile, a US soldier was killed in combat on Monday in the Naray area of eastern Kunar province, the US military said in a brief statement. At least 297 American soldiers have died in and around Afghanistan since US forces invaded more than five years ago to topple the hard-line Taleban regime.
Also on Monday, US-led coalition forces dropped a 910-kilogram bomb on a cave where insurgents retreated after a clash in southern Uruzgan province, US military spokesman Lt. Col. David Accetta said. He had no details on insurgent casualties.
The past year has seen a surge in violence in Afghanistan — including about 140 suicide attacks during 2006. Militants are posing an increasing challenge to the weak power of President Hamid Karzai’s government.
Baluch said authorities had not re-established contact with the police commander who abandoned his post in Bakwa on Monday as the Taleban moved in. Afghan army troops will stay with police in Bakwa for 10 to 15 days to consolidate their control, he said.
