Kabul - Up to a dozen or more members of the Afghan security
forces and around 30 militants were killed after militants attacked
an Afghan army convoy in western Afghanistan, officials said Friday.
Hundreds of Taliban militants attacked a convoy of army forces in
Bala Murghab district of the western province of Badghis on Thursday
afternoon, said General Fazel Ahmad Sayar, army commander in the
western region.
According to Sayar, seven Afghan soldiers were killed and seven
others were wounded in the 10-hour firefight. He said NATO-led
war planes hit Taliban positions in the area, killing or wounding 30
militants.
Sayar also said that the militants took hostage six Afghan
soldiers, while fifteen others were missing.
Badghis Deputy Governor Abdul Ghani Saber however provided a
different tally of the events, saying 13 Afghan soldiers were killed
and 11 wounded.
He also said 16 army soldiers were captured by the Taliban, who
for their part lost seven of their number killed in the clash.
The remoteness of the area makes independent verification of facts
difficult.
In another incident, British forces opened fire on a van in
eastern Kabul city on Friday afternoon, killing an Afghan boy and
wounding four other civilians, officials said.
Kabul police chief General Mohammad Ayoub Salangi added that the
van swerved off the road following the shooting and crashed into a
local shop. He attributed the incident to a 'misunderstanding.'
Frequent car bomb attacks on international troops have led such
soldiers to resort more readily to lethal force against any
approaching vehicle.
Friday's incident triggered a demonstration by hundreds of
protesters, who for two hours closed the Jalalabad road in eastern
outskirts of Kabul that links the capital to eastern provinces.
A suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives on
Thursday killed four Afghan civilians and wounded 20 others near the
US embassy in Kabul. The attack appeared to be targeting a foreign
military convoy. There were no casualties among foreign troops.
Around 1,500 civilians have been among the more than 4,000 people
killed in the first eight months of this year.
In a separate incident, gunmen wearing Afghan security forces
uniforms killed Mohammad Hanif, the former Taliban spokesman
in Chaparhar district of the eastern province of Nangahar, said
Chaparhar district chief Sayed Mohammad Pahlwan.
Pahlwan said Hanif died Thursday night along with two family
members.
Hanif had been recently released after his arrest by Afghan
intelligence agents two years ago.
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