At least two people were killed and eight others injured in two separate suicide attacks on Friday in eastern Afghanistan, officials said, while European Union leaders ruled out sending more troops to the insurgency-ridden country. A suicide attacker rammed a bomb-laden car into an Afghan and NATO-led convoy in Gardez, the provincial capital of Paktia, killing an Afghan soldier and a civilian, provincial police chief Abdul Hanan Raufi told AFP. Five other people including a NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldier were injured in the blast, he said.
ISAF officials confirmed the attack but were not immediately able to comment on casualties. Purported Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif telephoned AFP from
The blast was followed by another suicide bombing, carried out by a
Meanwhile European Union leaders meeting in Brussels on Friday ruled out sending more troops to the country, while focusing on plans to help Afghanistan move forward in health, justice and policing sectors. “Security and development in Afghanistan are mutually dependent,” they said in a joint statement, adding that the bloc wanted to ensure development help reached all parts of the impoverished country.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: “We have to realise that military means alone are not sufficient to stabilise the situation in Afghanistan.” Separately, hundreds of British, Estonian and Danish troops, backed by scores of armoured vehicles, moved from Helmand province to Kandahar in an overnight operation.