KABUL: About 50 Afghan civilians, security forces and militants were killed in a spate of attacks around the war-torn country, including an overnight military raid targeting insurgents in the increasingly violent north, officials said Saturday.
A roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan killed two US service members, said Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a US military spokeswoman. A third US service member died later of wounds from the attack, said Navy Chief Petty Officer Brian Naranjo.
Taleban attacks have risen steadily in the last three years, as have deaths of Afghan civilians caught in the grinding war between the Taleban and US and NATO forces. Taleban violence — which had been largely confined to the country’s south and east in the years after the 2001 US invasion — has spread to the country’s northern provinces this year.
Coalition and Afghan forces on Saturday killed 11 militants during an overnight raid in northern Kunduz province, said Abdul Razaq Yaqoubi, the provincial police chief. The operation targeted Taleban fighters who helped foreign fighters and suicide bombers infiltrate the region, Mathias said. She said “a number” of militants were killed after the forces exchanged fire. Bomb-making material, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades were found at the compound, she said. The raid did not appear to be connected with the kidnapping of a New York Times reporter and his Afghan colleague this month, officials said. British commandos freed the Western reporter last week but the Afghan and a commando died in the operation.
In Kabul, an American service member and an Afghan police officer got into an argument because the American was drinking water in front of Afghan policemen, who do not eat or drink during the day in Ramadan. After the argument, the police officer shot the American and seriously wounded him, while other American troops responded and seriously wounded the police officer.
Authorities reported Saturday a string of deadly militant attacks in the south and east. In Kandahar, two suicide bombers on a motorbike tried to attack an office of the country’s intelligence agency. Officers and the bombers traded gunfire. One bomber blew himself up and killed an intelligence officer, while the other bomber’s explosives went off but didn’t kill anyone.
In neighboring Uruzgan province, 14 civilians were killed Friday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Churra district.
