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Aid workers attacked in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Tightly guarded independence day celebrations in Afghanistan were marred by new attacks on aid workers and security forces as well as an explosion that ripped through the home of President Hamid Karzai's brother. No one was hurt in the blast in the southern city of Khandahar, which Karzai's brother Ahmed Wali insisted was an accident that happened as a servant moved some munitions and explosives confiscated in an earlier security raid. "It was a bad incident. But it was not a terrorist attack," Ahmed Wali Karzai told The Associated Press. Afghanistan has been hit by a new wave of violence blamed on insurgents, who are believed to be a mix of guerrillas from the ousted Taliban regime, al-Qaida fighters and supporters of renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. On Tuesday, attackers unsuccessfully fired three rockets at a coalition base in Asadabad, capital of eastern Kunar province, the U.S. military said. On Monday, 12 suspected Taliban insurgents ambushed and killed seven policemen near Kharwar in Logar province, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) south of Kabul, regional commander Hatiqulluh Luddin said. In a separate incident Monday night in Wardak province, just west of the capital, 20 armed men stormed a compound belonging to the Mine Dog Center, the Afghan mine-clearing group's director, Shahab Aqili, said. The men beat five employees with rifle butts, fired a rocket-propelled grenade at one of their vehicles and set a mine-clearing ambulance on fire. Police said they arrested eight suspects. On the same day, a homemade bomb exploded near coalition troops on patrol at Bari Kowt, a small village in Kunar on the border with Pakistan. In the northern province of Badakhshan, a gunman on Sunday opened fire on a vehicle belonging to the British charity Save the Children-UK, the group's program director in Kabul, Sue Watkins said. Two Afghan employees were wounded by flying glass shattered by bullets. Playing catch-upIt was the latest in a series of attacks that have forced aid groups to scale back or suspend operations particularly in southern and eastern Afghanistan. In a tightly guarded sports stadium in the capital, Kabul, President Karzai led celebrations to mark his country's independence from Britain in 1919. He called on Afghanistan's people to take responsibility for rebuilding the nation that has been ravaged by quarter of century of fighting. "It is the duty of everybody to launch a holy war to reconstruct this nation," Karzai told a crowd of several thousand people, including Cabinet ministers and diplomats. "We must try harder. We must catch up with the rest of the world." Karzai came to power following the U.S.-led ousting of the former Taliban government in late 2001. The country, struggling to rebuild, has become heavily dependent on foreign aid. Factional fighting among rival warlords and an ongoing insurgency waged by Taliban guerrillas and their allies have plagued many areas, despite the presence of 11,500 coalition troops and 5,000 NATO-led peacekeepers in Kabul. Luddin said gunmen who ambushed and killed the seven police officers on Monday used shoulder-fired rockets and machine-guns to destroy a police pickup truck. It was not clear if there were any survivors. He blamed members of the ousted Taliban regime. Security forces swept through the area afterward and arrested seven people. In northern Afghanistan, Watkins said the aid workers were traveling to the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif when they came under fire 12 kilometers (7 miles) west of the provincial capital, Faizabad. They had just opened a health clinic in the area. "Bullets passed through the drivers-side window and exited the passenger-side window. It's a miracle no one was really injured," Watkins said. Five Afghans were in the vehicle at the time. The two were wounded and briefly treated at a hospital. Watkins said security forces closed the road after the incident and were investigating the attack. There was no immediate indication of who was behind it. "We've been advised to lay low and we're sticking around Mazar until it becomes clear what this was all about," Watkins said. Attacks by anti-government insurgents have become increasingly bold and deadly. Hundreds of rebels reportedly attacked police stations near the Pakistan border in recent days. Several policemen have been killed and others have been captured. On Wednesday, two Afghan Red Crescent workers were killed and two were wounded in an ambush in southeastern Ghazni province. Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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