Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan have killed at least 22
security force members in an ambush in Sar-e-Pol province north of Kabul,
officials say.
The soldiers and policemen came under attack as they were
rotating out after a two-month stint in a remote and mountainous area of
Sar-i-Pul Province, an area that has seen an unusual increase in violence over
the summer fighting months.
The Taliban struck the convoy Sunday, igniting a
long gunfight that wounded an additional 17 soldiers and policemen and resulted
in the kidnapping of another six soldiers, according to the Abdul Jabar
Haqbeen, the governor of Sar-i-Pul.
The Taliban attacked from the mountains as the convoy was
travelling through Laghman valley, officials say, and at least 22 insurgents
were also killed.
The Sar-e-Pol provincial governor said that a number of
security force vehicles were destroyed.
Earlier a civilian was killed in a suicide bomb attack in
Kabul.
Villagers also accused Nato of killing seven civilians,
including a nine-year-old child, in an air strike in eastern Paktia province.
However, Nato said Sunday’s strike had killed “eight armed
enemy combatants.”
The issue of Nato air strikes was the most contentious of
the many disputes that former President Hamid Karzai had with the international
community, reports the BBC’s David Loyn in Kabul.
The violence comes ahead of the withdrawal of most foreign
troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year, with Afghan security forces
increasingly taking over from Nato-led forces in the fight against the
militants.
Culled
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