Suicide bomb, US forces kill 13 in Afghanistan
By Fiona Nate,WNS Afghanistan Correspondent
KABUL - A suicide bomber has blown himself up at a governor's house in southern Afghanistan, killing eight people, while US-led security forces shot dead four militants and a teenage girl. The violence came as President Hamid Karzai attended a high-level security conference in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban regime, to urge foreign forces to do their best to avoid civilian casualties. Six bodyguards, a district chief and a civilian were killed when the suicide bomber sneaked into the heavily guarded residence of the governor of troubled Helmand province, provincial police chief Mohammad Nabi Mullahkhil told AFP Tuesday.
"Governor Mohammad Daud was about to leave and as his motorcade and bodyguards were prepared the attacker penetrated into the governor's house and tried to approach the governor," Mullahkil said. "The bodyguard suspected he might be an attacker and stopped him but then the man exploded himself," he said, adding that eight other bodyguards were injured. The interior ministry also said eight people were killed in the attack, which took place during working hours at the house in Lashkargah, the provincial capital, but said seven of the victims were policemen and one was a civilian.
NATO troops rushed to the governor's house after the explosion but there were no casualties among foreign troops, said Jason Chalk, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. "All we can say is that the governor is safe," Chalk said. Separately on Tuesday, the US-led coalition and the Afghan army killed four suspected Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan, the coalition said in a statement. A 13-year-old girl was killed and an eight-year-old girl injured in the incident, when the soldiers raided a house near the village of Darnami in restive Khost province where the alleged insurgents were hiding out, it said. The wounded girl was taken to a coalition hospital, escorted by a family member, the coalition said. There were no casualties among the Afghan soldiers or coalition troops.
posted by wnsworld @ 8:49 PM
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