Taliban blitz American base
Source: Agencies July 14, 2008 Four Afghan soldiers had been wounded, Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP. “Tens of enemies have been killed and wounded but we don’t have a figure,” he said.
The troops had responded with airstrikes, the deputy provincial governor of adjoining Nuristan province, Abdul Aleem, told AFP.
“Some homes were destroyed and damaged. There have been casualties among all three sides " the locals, Taliban and foreign forces,” he said.
Also in Nuristan, four police were missing after days of clashes with insurgents in a district on the border with Pakistan, Aleem said.
Meanwhile, a suicide attacker with bombs strapped to his body rammed a motorbike into a police vehicle in a bazaar in Uruzgan province, causing an explosion that ripped through several shops, a witness said.
Twenty civilians and four policemen were killed in the blast in Deh Rawood, 400km southwest of Kabul, said Uruzgan police chief Juma Gul Hemat, adding that 27 wounded people were being treated in hospital.
“Most of the casualties are shopkeepers and people and children who were selling stuff on the roadside,” said a shopkeeper who gave his name only as Fazlullah.
“Around 15 shops have been damaged. I saw lots of people killed and injured. I can see human flesh, blood and pieces of metal, wood, clothing scattered around. Everything is bloodied,” he told AFP by telephone.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but similar attacks have been carried out by Taliban militants, who have led an insurgency against the Kabul government since being ousted from power in late 2001.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, blaming the “enemies of Afghanistan” - a reference to Taliban and other insurgents.
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