One U.S. soldier, 4 Afghan aid workers killed
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A U.S. soldier died in a mine blast and four Afghan aid workers were killed in an ambush Saturday, the latest victims in a bloody Taliban-led insurgency threatening plans for midyear elections.
The American soldier was killed and nine others wounded when their Humvee hit an anti-tank mine in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, a military spokesman said.
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Investigators were examining whether the blast, northwest of the city of Ghazni, was a targeted attack on the patrol "or just a leftover mine," Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said. Afghanistan is littered with old mines and weapons caches left over from more than two decades of war.
Meanwhile, four Afghans working for a de-mining agency were fatally shot in an ambush in the west of the country, officials said.
The victims had just delivered supplies to de-miners working near Bala Buluk, about 700 kilometers (340 miles) west of the capital, Kabul, Patrick Fruchet of the U.N. de-mining program told The Associated Press.
"We had a team nearby who heard the shots being fired," Fruchet said. "When they got there, they were all dead," he said.
More than 100 killed this year
An Afghan intelligence official said bullets found in their two shot-up vehicles were from AK-47 assault rifles and heavy machine guns.
Civilians have borne the brunt of a spate of recent attacks by suspected Taliban insurgents and their allies. The violence has left more than 100 dead in this year's first six weeks, mainly in the country's south and east.
Militants view Afghans working for aid groups or local authorities as fair targets in their campaign to unseat President Hamid Karzai and force foreign troops out of the country.
The United Nations has warned that elections planned for June could be derailed by the continuing violence, and by sluggish efforts to tame powerful warlords who could influence the vote.
Of the nine American soldiers injured Friday, two were being taken to a U.S. military hospital in Germany. Both were in stable condition, Hilferty said.
All the soldiers were from the 10th Mountain Division. Their names weren't released.
The blast near Ghazni, 125 kilometers (80 miles) south of Kabul, followed a Jan. 30 explosion at an arms dump near the same city. Eight U.S. soldiers died in what the military said appeared to have been an accident, in the deadliest day for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since 2001.
About 110 U.S. troops have died since Operation Enduring Freedom was launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. About two-thirds died in Afghanistan, many in accidents, with the rest in other countries.
Peacekeepers in Kabul have also been targeted, losing two soldiers in suicide attacks last month.
The NATO-led force's new commander told the AP on Saturday that troops seized a suspect immediately after a suicide bomber killed a Canadian soldier on Jan. 27.
Lt. Gen. Rick Hillier said the suspect was "an individual that we're interested in."
Hillier declined to give details. But peacekeeper spokesman Cdr. Chris Henderson said later Saturday that the man was released after questioning established that he had nothing to do with the crime.
Hillier said he was unsure if the man who attacked the Canadian jeep would ever be identified, but added: "What's most important is to identify clearly the folks who armed, prepared and brainwashed that individual to do that job, and we'll do that, that's for certain."
Copyright 2004 The
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