KABUL: All six troops killed in a weekend roadside bombing in eastern Afghanistan were Americans, NATO confirmed yesterday.
German Brig. Gen. Gunter Katz, a spokesman for the US-led coalition, disclosed their nationalities at a briefing, but said he could not provide other details about the incident because it was still under investigation. He said a seventh NATO service member killed Sunday in a separate insurgent attack in the south also was an American.
The Taleban yesterday claimed responsibility for the deaths of the six US troops — the latest caused by bombs planted by insurgents along roads, paths or mountain tracks.
Taleban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement the blast struck the US troops in their armored vehicle around 8 p.m. Sunday in Wardak province, just south of Kabul.
Coalition and Afghan forces are trying to secure areas of Wardak that insurgents use as gateway into the Afghan capital where they stage high profile attacks on Afghan government and NATO targets.
Wardak provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Qayum Baqizoi said that after the explosion in Jalrez district, a coalition airstrike killed a local Taleban commander and wounded three insurgents.
In another incident, Afghan suicide bombers killed two children and wounded six others when their explosive vests detonated prematurely as they went to attack police, an official said.
Also in the east, authorities said gunmen assassinated a chief prosecutor in Ghazni province Monday morning as he drove to work. Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, the deputy provincial governor, said Sahar Gul was shot twice — once in the head and once in the chest.
The Taleban routinely target Afghan government officials to weaken support for President Hamid Karzai’s administration.
In the south, three suicide bombers riding in a three-wheeled vehicle blew themselves up Monday afternoon in Kandahar city, killing two children and wounding six other civilians, said Kandahar provincial spokesman Ahmad Jawed Faisal. He said authorities had not determined the target of the explosion.
A surge in Afghan and coalition forces during the past two years has routed Taleban fighters from many of their strongholds in the south, but the insurgents have stepped up their attacks this summer to take back key areas.
Separately, President Hamid Karzai yesterday condemned the public killing of a married Afghan woman who was accused of allegedly running off with another man.
In a statement, Karzai called the execution-style slaying an unforgiveable crime. A video of the killing, which surfaced recently, showed the woman being shot multiple times as people stood nearby cheering.
Before it collapsed in 2001, the Taleban regime carried out public executions of women, mostly for adultery.
Police in Shinwari district of Parwan province say the Taleban were behind the woman’s slaying, which occurred about up to 12 days ago.
Karzai’s condemnation comes as donor nations met in Tokyo to pledge $16 billion in aid for Afghanistan. The donors expressed strong concerns over how the money will be handled and also called on Kabul to improve human rights, especially women’s rights.
“Such a crime is unforgivable in the sacred religion of Islam and the laws of the country,” Karzai said.
The US Embassy in Kabul and the top commander of US and NATO forces on Sunday also condemned the killing of the woman.
Meanwhile, a manhunt was under way for Taleban militants Afghan authorities said, as outrage mounted after a video of the cold-blooded killing surfaced.
The commander of NATO’s 130,000 troops in Afghanistan, General John Allen, offered to help local security forces track and capture the men involved in what he called “an atrocity of unspeakable cruelty.” The brutal shooting of the lone woman before a cheering mob of men is shown in graphic detail in a video of the event in a village in Parwan province some 100 km north of the capital Kabul.
“We have sent a police force to the area,” Parwan provincial governor Basir Salangi said, adding that the government had no permanent presence in the valley.
“They are searching for the Taleban who are responsible but the Taleban, including the killer, have fled to the mountains.” Roshna Khalid, Salangi’s spokeswoman, separately said the 22-year-old woman, named as Najiba, was married to a member of the Taleban and was accused of adultery with a Taleban commander.
“Within one hour they decided that she was guilty and sentenced her to death. They shot her in front of villagers in her village, Qol,” she said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, before the video surfaced, made a powerful plea Sunday for the rights of women in Afghanistan, amid fears that recent gains for women are under threat as NATO troops prepare to leave in 2014.
Clinton, who was addressing a world conference in Tokyo on Afghanistan’s future, said: “The United States believes strongly that no nation can achieve peace, stability and economic growth if half the population is not empowered.”
