 A car exploded in a southern Afghan town yesterday, killing its three occupants and a passerby, in what appeared to be a bungled suicide attack, a provincial official said. Security has been stepped up across Afghanistan in the run-up to Sept. 18 elections that have been denounced by Taleban insurgents, who have been battling US and government forces since their ouster in 2001. The car was passing a policemanâs house in the town of Girishk when it exploded but that was not believed to have been the target, said Mohammed Wali Alizai, spokesman for the Helmand provincial governor. âIt seems their aim was to carry out a suicide attack on the Americans but it went off early,â Alizai said. âThe car was completely destroyed, itâs in pieces,â he said.
| ... dancing a clumsy, odd-looking jig on the hard boyz' graves... |
The Taleban claimed responsibility. Abdul Latif Hakimi, a spokesman for the militants, said a Taleban suicide bomber set off the blast and eight Americans had been killed.
| "Yep. Killed 'em all. They're all dead. None of our guyz are. That wuz the Merkins in the car." |
The United States has 20,000 troops in Afghanistan, most of them are focusing on election security, as are 10,000 NATO-led peacekeepers and tens of thousands of government forces.
In a separate incident, two Taleban fighters and four Afghan government soldiers were killed in a clash in Ghazni province to the southwest of the capital on Tuesday night, a provincial official said. |