KABUL, 8 October 2007 — A would-be suicide bomber from Afghanistan’s extremist Taleban was shot dead just steps away from a provincial police chief in his headquarters near Kabul yesterday, the commander said.
The attacker was wearing a police uniform and snuck into the headquarters in Logar province south of the capital, chief Ghullam Moustafa said.
Guards became suspicious when the man ignored warnings to stop. “Our guards shot and killed him just behind my office door,” Moustafa said. “He was less than five meters away from me.” The would-be attacker was found to be wearing a bomb-filled “suicide vest” underneath the uniform.
Taleban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed claimed responsibility, calling the man “our mujahed.” The hard-liners have vowed to step up attacks during Islam’s holy month of Ramadan which started in mid-September.
Meanwhile, International soldiers under NATO command shot dead three Afghan civilians at the weekend when they did not heed warnings to stop near checkpoints or military vehicles, the force said yesterday.
In the eastern province of Kunar on Saturday, the soldiers shot and killed two people in a truck that had not stopped at a checkpoint, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.
A district chief said Saturday that three other people, including a woman, were wounded in the incident.
ISAF said the checkpoint was erected after information that insurgents in the area were reinforcing themselves by using trucks. Also on Saturday, an Afghan man “behaved suspiciously” near an ISAF convoy in the eastern province of Paktia, the statement said. He ignored warnings in the local language to stop and was shot and killed.
“We deeply regret the loss of life in both of these incidents,” said ISAF spokesman Maj. Charles Anthony. The shootings were being investigated, the statement said.
Also, international military planes called in by Afghan security forces killed 16 rebels, apparently all foreigners, suspected of preparing an attack in the country’s east, police said yesterday.
Six rebels were injured and one was captured following the raid late Saturday in the province of Paktika on Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, provincial deputy police chief Farouq Sangari said.
