Over 60 killed in three days in conflict-plagued Afghanistan
- Source: Xinhua
- [11:20 June 21 2009]
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More than 60 people, majority of them Taliban fighters, have been killed in Afghanistan since mid of the week, according to Afghan officials.
The Taliban fighters, in their latest wave of violent attacks against government interests, targeted a convoy of the Afghan national army in eastern Khost province Saturday morning and troops returned fire, killing five insurgents, an official said.
According to Khost Governor Hamidullah Qalandarzai, one passerby was killed in the crossfire while there were no casualties on the troops.
He further asserted that nine Taliban fighters and four civilians got wounded in the firefight which lasted for a while.
In a separate attack against government interests, the militants dynamited a high school in Khost province in the wee hours of Saturday and razed to rubble 200 classrooms, spokesman of education directorate in the province Syed Musa Majroh told Xinhua.
Anti-government militants did not spare the NATO-led peacekeeping force (ISAF) and the US-led Coalition forces over the past three days as they killed three foreign soldiers in the troubled southern region.
"An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service member was killed as a result of an Improvised Explosive Device ( IED) strike by insurgents in southern Afghanistan yesterday ( Friday)," said an ISAF statement.
In the other incident, two service members with the US -led Coalition forces were killed in an IED attack on a convoy in southern Afghanistan on Friday, said a Coalition statement.
Moreover, an air attack against militants left over two dozen Taliban fighters dead in militants' hotbed Helmand province Friday night.
"A group of the Taliban fighters were busy in planting mines on the road in Babajee area outside provincial capital Lashkar Gah on Friday night when the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) dropped bombs after getting information, killing 26 on the spot," Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman for provincial administration, told Xinhua.
In addition, 15 more suspected Taliban fighters, according to a senior Afghan forces' commander in the southern region, have been killed in Zabul and the neighboring Helmand province over the past two days.
Conflicts and Taliban-related violence had left over 6,000 people dead with more than 2,100 of them civilians in 2008, while military analysts, including US commanders predict more violence this year in Afghanistan as the presidential election approaching.
Militants loyal to Taliban who staged a violent comeback four years ago have vowed to intensify activities mostly in the shape of suicide and roadside bombings this year in Afghanistan.