7 US troops killed in 2 south Afghan bomb attacks

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7 US troops killed in 2 south Afghan bomb attacks

By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer Amir Shah, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr

39 mins ago

KABUL, Afghanistan – Seven American service members were killed Monday in two

separate roadside bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan, NATO said.

No details were given of the attacks, although eyewitnesses in the southern city

of Kandahar said an armored U.S. Army Humvee hit a roadside bomb in the early

afternoon. Several bodies were seen being removed from the vehicle, which was

set on fire by the blast.

The deaths bring to 14 the number of U.S. troops killed in action in eastern and

southern Afghanistan over the past three days.

A spike in U.S. troop numbers in Afghanistan to over 120,000 has brought

increased contact with insurgents and a rising death toll. Forty-nine U.S.

service members have died in Afghanistan this month, still fewer than the 66

killed in July.

To the east in Nangarhar province, the head of Lal Pur district, Syad Mohammad

Palawan, was killed when a bomb planted on his vehicle exploded as he was

driving into a government compound to attend a meeting of provincial security

and political leaders, said police spokesman Ghafor Khan.

Insurgents apparently planned for the bomb to explode inside the compound in the

provincial capital Jalalabad where it could potentially have caused far greater

destruction, Khan said.

Three of Palawan's bodyguards were wounded, Khan said, while the Interior

Ministry put the figure at five.

The attack followed a failed assault on two coalition bases in nearby Khost

province Saturday, in which more than 30 insurgents were killed. The attacks

indicate that militant activity is rising in parts of the east, as coalition

forces focus resources on Kandahar and other Taliban strongholds in the south.

Security in eastern Afghanistan is critical because the region includes the

capital, Kabul, which the insurgents have sought to surround and isolate from

the rest of the country. Jalalabad also lies just 35 miles (55 kilometers) west

of the Pakistan border, where militants maintain safe havens from which to plan

attacks and infiltrate foreign fighters linked to al-Qaida across the rugged

mountains.

Shutting down such sanctuaries has been a key demand of the government of

President Hamid Karzai, who on Saturday renewed his criticism of coalition

strategy in fighting Afghanistan's stubborn insurgency — part of a pattern of

greater outspokenness by the Afghan leader as he appeals for support among the

beleaguered Afghan public.

In a meeting with visiting German Parliament Speaker Norbert Lammert, Karzai

said there was a " serious need " to alter strategy against the Taliban and other

groups linked to al-Qaida, the presidential office said.

" There should be a review of the strategy in the fight against terrorism,

because the experience of the last eight years showed that the fight in the

villages of Afghanistan has been ineffective apart from causing civilian

casualties, " Karzai was quoted as saying in a news release.

Karzai has in the past argued Afghan forces should take the lead in operations

to root out insurgents and win support from deeply conservative villagers who

harbor a long tradition of suspicion of outsiders. He says personal contact

between coalition forces and villagers only breeds resentment, although most

Afghan police and soldiers are drawn from northern Uzbeks and Tajiks who are

ethnically and linguistically distinct from the Pashtuns who make up the core of

Taliban support.

Last week, Karzai also criticized the U.S. plan to begin withdrawing troops

starting next July and said the fight against terrorism cannot succeed as long

as the Taliban and their allies maintain safe havens in Pakistan.

Karzai's comments contradict statements from coalition commanders that an

increase in the total number of foreign forces to more than 140,000 has turned

the momentum of recent Taliban advances.

In other operations, NATO said combined coalition and Afghan forces detained

several suspected Taliban in Kandahar province, including regional commanders

and bomb-makers, as well as insurgents involved in Saturday's attacks on Forward

Operating Base Salerno and Camp Chapman in Khost. Chapman was the scene of a

suicide attack in December that killed seven CIA employees.

Elsewhere, Afghanistan's Defense Ministry reported four soldiers were killed and

another wounded Sunday in a roadside bombing in Wardak province. A fifth Afghan

soldier was killed and another hurt in a bombing in Helmand province's Nad Ali

district.

In the southeastern province of Zabul, 24 Taliban traveling by truck and

motorcycle were captured while trying to cross the border into Pakistan, said

provincial government spokesman Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar.

Five Taliban, including one regional commander, were also killed in fighting

with coalition forces Sunday in Helmand province's Gereshik district, according

to Daoud Ahmedi, spokesman to the provincial governor.

___

Associated Press writer Mirwais Khan contributed to this report from Kandahar.