Six rebels killed in would-be Afghan suicide attack
Khaleej Times ^ | 26 September 2006
khaleejtimes.com
KHOST, Afghanistan
Six suspected rebels were killed in eastern Afghanistan when they were escorting a suicide bomber whose explosives detonated early, a provincial governor said Tuesday.
Five of the rebels were escorting the sixth as he left a village in the eastern province of Paktika, governor Mohammad Akram Ikhpolwak told AFP.
The men were killed when bombs strapped on the would-be suicide bomber detonated, he said, citing intelligence reports that also said the man was planning an attack.
Suicide attacks have increased in Afghanistan in the past year, before which they were very rare.
This year has also seen some of the most powerful blasts, with one in the southern town of Lashkar Gah on Tuesday killing 18 people, most of them civilians. But many of the attacks are also botched.
In the eastern province of Khost on Tuesday, a convoy of US-led coalition troops narrowly escaped a suicide blast when the would-be bomber exploded before reaching his target, the coalition and police said.
A man wearing a bomb-loaded vest tried to attack the convoy but his explosives detonated early, a coalition spokesman said.
Khost province police chief Mohammad Ayoob confirmed the incident but said the man was shot dead by troops as he attempted to launch himself at the convoy.
The police chief added a second man who was believed to be the bomber’s companion also exploded just a few metres (yards) from the convoy.
“We believe they were two individuals trying to attack the convoy,” he told AFP. “The second man exploded or exploded his bombs as the first one was shot,” he said. |
