KABUL, Afghanistan — On the deadliest day in Afghanistan this year, 22
civilians were killed and 50 were wounded Wednesday in two suicide
bombings in the restive southern province of Kandahar, while 18
civilians were reported killed in a U.S.-led coalition airstrike in
eastern Logarprovince.
Coalition officials disputed Afghanreports of civilian casualties in
thepredawn airstrike, which they said was ordered after a joint
Afghan-coalition force came under fire from insurgents while trying to
capture a Taliban leader in the district of Baraki Barak. An Afghan
provincial official in Logar alleged that many of the victims were
young children, but it was impossible to confirm the
accountsimmediately.
"At this point, our understanding is still that there were no
civilians killed as a result of that operation," said a spokesman for
the International Security Assistance Force, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian
Badura. Coalition officials said late Wednesday that a team would
investigate the allegations.
The airstrike took place early Wednesday after the U.S.-Afghan
operation raided a house where a supposed Taliban meeting was taking
place at about 2:30 a.m., said Ghulam Sakhi, the Logar provincial
police chief. Three U.S. soldiers and three Afghan soldiers were
wounded in an exchange of fire with insurgents, who refused to
surrender, prompting coalition forces to order the airstrike.
Sakhisaid 18 civilians were killed, in addition to 12 people whom he
identified as Taliban.
Dr. Abdul Wali Wakil, the head of the Logar provincial council, told
McClatchy Newspapers that two men and two women were among the dead,
as well as three teenagers whose ages he listed as13 to 15. The rest
he described aschildren — many of whom were 3 to 5 years old — who
were members of the same family.
In an earlier statement, coalition forces said only that a team that
had visited the site after the airstrike "discovered two women who had
sustained non-life-threatening injuries" and that those women were
transported to a coalition medical facility.
Even if the 18 civilian deaths at Logar aren't confirmed, the attackat
Kandahar made Wednesday the bloodiest day in Afghanistan since a
suicide bomber struck a Shiite Muslim shrine at Kabul in December,
killing 84 civilians and wounding as many as 200.
The Kandahar attack occurred in the late morning at a rest stop on the
highway between the city of Kandahar and Spin Boldak, a town on the
Pakistani border, said JavidFaisal, a spokesman for Kandahar's
governor. Faisal said the first attack was by a suicide bomber riding
a motorcycle, and that after people had gathered at the site of the
attack, a second suicide bomber, who was on foot, detonated his
explosives.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on
their website, saying they'd targeted a rest stop used by a private
security firm that supplies foreign forces in Afghanistan. Thegroup
said that only one suicide bomber was involved and it claimedthat the
attack had killed and wounded coalition soldiers.
Faisal rejected the claim. "The suicide bombers targeted civilians,"
he said. "There were no Afghan or ISAF soldiers or police present.
There is no military base there."
Shortly after the attack, bodies were being cleared from the scene and
the wounded were being transported to hospitals. Faisal said the
number of casualties could rise, although 30 of the 50 civilians who
were wounded appeared to have minor injuries.
President Hamid Karzai, who was in China for a summit of regional
leaders, condemned the attack, saying in a statement that the Taliban
"will not achieve their goals by conducting such cowardlyattacks."
Also Wednesday, two coalition service members died after a helicopter
crash in eastern Afghanistan. The coalition refusedto release details
about the cause of the crash or its precise location, but it said it
was investigating the incident.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that Taliban
insurgents had shot down aU.S. helicopter in the eastern province of
Ghazni, but there was no independent confirmation of theclaim.
Separately, one civilian was killed and 10 were wounded in a suicide
attack late Wednesday in northwestern Faryab province, according to
Faryab's health director, Abdul Ali Haleem. Faryab's police chief,
Abdul KhaliqAqsaee, said an Afghan soldier identified the bomber, who
denotedhis explosive vest while running away.
On Tuesday, three people were killed when an anti-vehicle mine
exploded on the main road of Dowab village in Ghazni, Afghan officials
said. Another was wounded in the blast. The Interior Ministry blamed
the attack on "theenemies of peace and stability," shorthand for the
Taliban-led insurgents who are battling coalition forces and Karzai's
government.
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