Fresh Afghan violence claims 11 lives

11/03/2007| IslamWeb

Separate Taliban attacks in eastern Afghanistan yesterday killed 11 people, including four Afghans working for the US military and two civilians, officials said.

An exchange of fire between Taliban fighters and police in Ghazni province left four of the rebels, two civilians and a policeman dead, officials said.

The civilians were killed in the crossfire, police chief Alishah Ahmadzai said. Three Taliban fighters were captured in a "clearing operation" following the gunfight, he said.

In Khost province, on the border with Pakistan, a roadside bomb tore through a military vehicle, killing four Afghan militiamen employed by the US-led military, a provincial official said.

The men were travelling to a checkpost near the border when the bomb exploded under their vehicle, said Salim Karwan, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

Two civilian nomad women standing nearby were hurt in the blast.

In southern Afghanistan, the US-led coalition carried out a precision air strike on a Taliban militant who had been helping move anti-aircraft weapons.

The coalition did not say how many people may have been killed in the strike on a "Taliban weapons facilitator" in Helmand province, with a battle damage assessment still under way.

A top rebel commander, meanwhile, said the fugitive leader of the Taliban was in Afghanistan and leading the battle against the government and its international allies.

Mullah Dadullah rejected speculation that Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar was in Pakistan.

Asked in a telephone interview where Omar is, he said: "I won't tell you that. But one thing I can tell you is that if he was in Pakistan, he would have been captured just like many others."

In Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai sent back to parliament a bill that would have given amnesty for war crimes in Afghanistan's long conflict, saying individuals have the right to seek justice.

The bill was approved last month by the lower and upper houses of parliament.

Karzai returned the document with proposed amendments, chiefly the addition of an article "that ensures and preserves the rights of individuals to seek justice for the crimes committed against them".

PHOTO CAPTION

NATO soldiers in Helmand province in a file photo. (Reuters)