US Soldier, 6 Bodyguards of an Afghan Police Chief Killed in Clashes, 3 Afghan Civilians Injured by US Fire

28 April 2005

A US soldier and six Afghan policemen were killed in two separate ambushes by Taleban gunmen in southern Afghanistan, the latest casualties in a surge of resistance, US and Afghan officials said yesterday.

The US soldier, whose name was not released, was killed on Tuesday while on patrol in the troubled Deh Rawood district of the south-central province of Uruzgan, the military said in a statement. “The soldier was medically evacuated to the forward surgical team in Tarin Kowt where he was pronounced dead by medical personnel.”

“His remains were transported to Kandahar airfield for movement back to the United States,” it added, referring to the main US-led military base in southeastern Afghanistan. No other coalition or Afghan troops were injured in the ambush.

The statement did not provide any details of the attack. However, members of the Taleban resistance have increased their attacks on US and Afghan troops over recent weeks.

Six Afghan policemen were also killed Tuesday when Taleban gunmen ambushed a local police chief in the restive southern province of Helmand. The police chief of Dishu district, which has been the scene of heavy fighting this month, was ambushed en route to his headquarters, provincial intelligence chief Dad Mohammed Khan told AFP. “Taleban attacked the Dishu police chief — they killed six of his bodyguards,” Khan said, adding that the police chief escaped and the Taleban fled the scene.

Meanwhile in eastern Afghanistan, three civilians were wounded when American soldiers fired on their minibus after a US troop patrol narrowly escaped a blast from an improvised bomb. Afghan officials said the US troops had fired on innocent civilians but a US military spokeswoman said the troops had been aiming at attackers who took cover behind the minibus.

The latest violence comes less than a week after a Romanian soldier, also attached to the 18,000-strong US-led coalition force, was killed and another wounded when a suspected bomb hit their vehicle in Kandahar province. The Deh Rawood region is located in the mountainous central Afghanistan region where Taleban fighters regularly attack US and Afghan forces.

The district, about 448 kilometers southwest of the capital Kabul, was the scene of heavy clashes between US and Taleban fighters last weekend in which two US and two Afghan soldiers were injured.

The latest American casualty brought to 23 the number of US soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year, including 15 troops who died in a helicopter crash on April 6 in southern Ghazni province.

Three American civilians were also killed in the crash, one of the worst air accidents since the US-led military was deployed in Afghanistan to topple Taleban regime in late 2001.

Afghan government troops have captured a key Taleban commander after a brief shootout during a raid in southeastern Afghanistan, an official said yesterday.

Mulla Momen, who local authorities described as a “key Taleban organizer,” was arrested in Deh Chopan district of Zabul province on Tuesday, provincial government spokesman Gulab Shah Alikhil told AFP. Momen, who served as a military commander in eastern Afghanistan during the Taleban 1996-2001 rule, has been involved in anti-government activities since the fall of the Taleban regime in late 2001, Alikhil said.