KABUL, 23 July 2003 — Two US troops and one Afghan soldier were injured when their vehicle rolled over in central Afghanistan’s Bamiyan province, a US military spokesman said yesterday. “Two coalition soldiers and one Afghan National Army soldier from the Bamiyan reconstruction team were injured when the non-tactical vehicle they were driving rolled over southeast of Punjab (district) last night (Monday),” US Col. Rodney Davis told reporters at Bagram Air Base, 50 kilometers north of Kabul.
The wounded soldiers were evacuated to Kabul for treatment and were in stable condition, he said, adding the accident was not the result of hostile action. The Americans were attached to a local Provincial Reconstruction Team in Bamiyan.
PRTs are part of a US-led civil-military project intended to help with reconstruction, improve security and extend the influence of President Hamid Karzai’s government behind the capital Kabul. New Zealand announced earlier this month that it would send around 100 troops to take over the US-run PRT in Bamiyan, famed for the ancient Buddha statues which were destroyed by the Taleban.
An improvised bomb exploded near a Dutch peacekeeping patrol on the outskirts of the Afghan capital a few hours before another bomb was found in a central shopping street frequented by foreigners, peacekeepers said yesterday. A Dutch soldier with the International Security Assistance Force was slightly wounded with a cut to his forehead in the explosion on the southeastern outskirts of Kabul on Monday morning, ISAF spokeswoman Maj. Sarah Wood said.
An ISAF statement said it was a deliberate attack almost identical to one in March that wounded another Dutch peacekeeper and killed his interpreter. The bomb in that attack was hidden at the edge of a road and detonated by remote control. A US Embassy advisory said as many as seven improvised explosive devices had been found in Kabul in the past 36 hours.
But Sarah said she was aware of only three suspect incidents and police also questioned the US report, which restricted embassy employees to essential travel. Security forces defused a bomb found on Monday afternoon in Chicken Street, a popular shopping area for foreigners, including peacekeepers and troops from a US-led coalition battling remnants of the former Taleban regime and the Al-Qaeda network.
Kabul has been the scene of a series of bloody attacks since the overthrow of the Taleban in late 2001, which have killed both civilians and foreign peacekeepers. On Monday, the US military said Taleban fighters had stepped up attacks in southern provinces, with nine coalition soldiers wounded and up to 24 Taleban killed since Friday.
Security remains a major problem in much of Afghanistan as Karzai’s government attempts to extend its authority to the provinces where powerful provincial governors and warlords still largely hold sway.
Afghan Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim, meanwhile, is to visit neighboring Tajikistan this week to discuss bilateral cooperation and improved border security, the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe said yesterday. Fahim is to spend two days in the Tajik capital Dushanbe from tomorrow, during which he will meet President Emomali Rakhmonov and the defense, foreign and interior ministers, Afghan Ambassador Mukhamaddovud Pandsheri told AFP.
