NATO soldier killed in attack north of Kabul
Six injured in second such assault this week
KABUL, Afghanistan — Ataliban suicide bomber disguised as a woman rammed his motorcycle into an international convoy, killing a NATO soldier and two Afghan civilians in an attack north of the Afghan capital, the U.S. military said Friday. It was the second deadly assault this week on a NATO convoy.
Stepped up Taliban attacks this week have focused mostly on the country’s south, but there was also a deadly bombing in the western city of Herat, where 32 people died in a militant assault on a Shiite mosque.
Thursday evening’s attack hit the NATO patrol near the town of Qarabagh, barely 18 miles north of Kabul, the Afghan capital, the U.S. military said.
The day before, a suicide attacker hit a convoy on the edge of the southern city of Kandahar, killing two U.S. soldiers and wounding another four. Both attacks were claimed by the Taliban.
According to the U.S. military, three Georgian soldiers were wounded in Thursday’s bombing, as well as two U.S. service members and an Afghan interpreter. The military said the wounded are in stable condition receiving treatment at the U.S. military hospital at Bagram Air Base, also north of Kabul.
The district governor in Qarabagh, Abdul Sami Sharifi, said the attacker concealed his explosives beneath the all-enveloping women’s garment known as a burqa. He rammed his motorcycle into the NATO patrol, setting off his explosives, Sharifi said.
In a statement, U.S. Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, praised the contribution of the nearly 900 Georgian military personnel serving in Afghanistan. “The commitment of Georgia as our largest NON-NATO contributor is vital to our mission and we are honored to stand beside them under these difficult circumstances,” Nicholson said.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told The Associated Press over the phone on Friday that one of its fighters from Takhar province carried out the attack at 8 p.m. in Qarabagh. He claimed 11 Americans were killed, but the insurgents routinely exaggerate their claims.
Meanwhile, in southern Helmand province, the Taliban stormed a market on Friday in the Gareshk district and fired at a nearby police station, according to district police chief Ismail Khan Khopalwaq. The market was closed because of the Muslim weekend and no casualties were reported in the attack.
On Thursday, a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a police outpost in Gareshk, killing two policemen and wounding another two.
The district has been the scene of heavy fighting in recent weeks between Afghan security forces, backed by U.S. air support, and the Taliban, who now control roughly 80 percent of Helmand province.
Gareshk district is also where the Pentagon confirmed that an errant U.S. bomb last month destroyed a police outpost, killing 12 officers and wounding another 11.