Three people, including a US soldier, were killed and 15 others wounded as violence erupted in southeastern Afghanistan where Taliban remnants are the most active in the country, officials said Saturday. The US soldier was killed and nine of his comrades were wounded when their vehicle hit a landmine Friday, a US military spokesman said. The blast came shortly after an Afghan soldier and a shopkeeper were killed and six others injured in a bomb attack. A US military base was also the target of a multiple rocket attack. The landmine explosion occurred near the city of Ghazni, US spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Hilferty said. But he said the incident should not be taken as an indication of an upswing in violence in the region because initial investigations revealed it ``was not enemy related’’.
| Ummm... Whose landmine was it, Brian? A leftover from 20 years back? Don't these people ever clean up their messes? |
``I think we would have to wait and see if this is an increase,’’ in attacks in general, Hilferty said. ``We don’t know for sure whether this is a temporary spike.’’ He said the 10th Mountain Division troops were patrolling the area when their Humvee hit the mine. Four of the wounded had minor injuries but two would be flown to Germany for treatment because they had serious but not life-threatening injuries, he said. |