BAGRAMI, Afghanistan, 16 August 2007 — Hundreds of US-led troops have launched an offensive against Al-Qaeda and Taleban militants in eastern Afghanistan, while a bomb attack near the capital killed three German nationals, officials said yesterday.
The offensive involving ground troops and airstrikes in Tora Bora region of eastern Nangarhar province is targeting “hundreds of foreign fighters” who are using dug-in fighting positions, said coalition spokeswoman Capt. Vanessa Bowman.
The remote mountainous area bordering Pakistan was heavily bombarded in late 2001 by the US troops hunting Osama Bin Laden and his associates following the Sept. 11 attacks in America.
Bin Laden is believed to have escaped that assault. There were no immediate reports of casualties among militants or US and Afghan troops.
Near the capital Kabul, meanwhile, a bomb attack near a two-vehicle convoy yesterday killed three German police officers and wounded a fourth, officials said. The explosion near the convoy, which was traveling on an unpaved road about 10 kilometers southeast of Kabul, turned one of the two vehicles onto its side and left it badly damaged.
Germany’s Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the three Germans were police officers deployed to Afghanistan to protect the German Embassy. In a statement in Berlin, he characterized the explosion as an “underhanded attack.”
The officers apparently were on their way to a training session. Schaeuble said they were traveling in a “particularly well-protected vehicle.” He said Germany’s Federal Crime Office was sending experts to Afghanistan to help investigate the explosion. The wounded officer, who did not suffer life-threatening injuries, was being treated by the German military at a Kabul base.
Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said the blast took place in the capital’s Bagrami district. “We’re investigating the incident, including the type of the bomb,” Bashary said.
Separately, US-led coalition and Afghan troops clashed with militants in central Logar province on Tuesday, killing nine suspected militants, the Interior Ministry said. No police or coalition troops were wounded in the clash, it said.
Meanwhile, the Taleban and South Korean negotiators will resume direct talks today for the release of 19 South Korean hostages in Afghanistan, the Taleban said.
“The talks will resume tomorrow at 10 o’clock (0730 GMT) in the same place in Ghazni province,” Taleban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said, referring to the local headquarters of the Afghan Red Crescent Society.
Jean-Pascal Moret, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told AFP his organization “has again been asked to make the venue available to the two sides on Thursday morning.”
Direct negotiations were deferred after the release Monday of two South Korean women, though the South Korean Embassy in Kabul said Tuesday that “negotiation channels” with the Taleban were still open.
