Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (36496)	1/28/2004 11:55:18 AM
From: lurqer	Respond to of 89467

A Canadian followed now by a Brit - ironically by a Brit. Kabul suicide attack kills British soldier A British soldier has been killed and three others wounded when a suicide bomber drove a taxi carrying explosives up to their vehicle in Kabul, the second attack on peacekeepers in the Afghan capital in as many days. A member of the ousted Taliban militia claimed responsibility for Wednesday's blast, saying the bomber was an Algerian-born British national. The attack on peacekeepers of the NATO-led force came a day after a Canadian soldier and an Afghan civilian were killed in a similar suicide bombing in the city. "We heard a powerful explosion. When we got out we saw a destroyed British vehicle...along with a taxi," said police officer Mirza Mohammad. "We carried one dead British soldier along with three other wounded British soldiers and one of their translators." Nimatullah Jalili, a senior interior ministry official, told Reuters that one Afghan civilian also died in the attack and a civilian was wounded. A taxi thought to have been carrying the bomb was completely destroyed and pieces of human flesh, believed to be that of the suicide bomber driving the vehicle, could be seen, Mohammad said. The explosion occurred on the road leading east out of Kabul to Jalalabad, near where four German peacekeepers were killed and dozens injured in June by a suicide bomber driving a taxi. A statement issued by the 5,700-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul confirmed the soldier's death, but it did not have reports of any civilian casualties. TALIBAN CLAIM Abdul Latif Hakimi, an official of the deposed Taliban militia, claimed responsibility for the attack. "It's just the beginning. More such attacks will take place. Hundreds of our men are ready to carry out such attacks," he told Reuters from an undisclosed location. Hakimi identified the bomber as Saad, an Algerian-born British national in his twenties. He said Saad had recently been based in Uzbekistan. "He had also taken part in the jihad (holy war) in Palestine," he added. Militants in Afghanistan with links to the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia have usually been linked to the al Qaeda network, and not the Taliban. The Taliban also said it was behind Tuesday's attack when a bomber threw himself in front of a vehicle being driven by Canadian peacekeepers. One Canadian soldier and an Afghan civilian died, and three Canadian troops and eight Afghan civilians were wounded. The hardline Islamic militia has declared a "jihad", or holy war against foreign troops in Afghanistan and the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai. Last month it claimed responsibility for another suicide attack that killed five Afghan security officials in Kabul, saying at the time it would shift the focus of its campaign to cities, where its militants were preparing suicide missions. Until then, security experts had tended to link suicide bomb attacks in Afghanistan to al Qaeda, once sheltered by the Taliban. The Taliban, most active in the south and east, has traditionally been blamed for less sophisticated road block killings, executions or drive-by shootings and grenade attacks. Aid work has been suspended across much of Afghanistan and doubts are growing over the feasibility of holding elections planned for June. Around 500 people, including many militants, have been killed in Afghanistan in the last six months, the bloodiest period since the Taliban's ouster by U.S.-led forces in late 2001. The U.S. military, which leads a 12,000-strong force in Afghanistan hunting Islamic guerrillas, said in a statement on Wednesday that six members of the force had been wounded in two separate incidents since Monday. reuters.co.uk lurqer