In one incident, a parked motorbike packed with explosives detonated near a van of a US-based security firm accompanying a NATO convoy through Kandahar, killing two Afghan guards, said the company. Six other men in the US Protection and Investigation (USPI) vehicle were wounded in the attack and three of them were critical and in a coma, said the head of security for the convoy. The van had been escorting a convoy that was supplying logistics to NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops when it was hit in the volatile Maiwand district of Kandahar. The district governor, Haji Saifullah, said it was a remote-controlled bomb. Another blast occurred while police were defusing a remote-controlled bomb in the Shindand district of Herat province. It killed three of Zir Koh district’s top police officers, including the criminal investigation and police operations directors, said the police commander for western Afghanistan. A third remote-controlled bomb hit a patrolling police vehicle in the southwestern province of Nimroz, said the provincial police chief. “Three police were wounded,” Mohammad Daud Askarzada told AFP. The elders calling for talks with warlords had convened in Kabul for a two-day jirga aimed at giving them a larger role in the country’s stability, said Arsalh Rahmani, a leader from Paktika province and member of parliament. Also, US forces in Afghanistan said they had captured two suspected Al Qaeda operatives near the Pakistan border on Wednesday, after following leads on a suspect “known to pass correspondence for senior Al Qaeda leaders”. The men were arrested in an early morning raid in a town in Nangarhar province, said the US military in a statement.
Separately, more than 1,000 villagers have fled a Musa Qala as Taliban fighters dig in to repel NATO efforts to drive them out, said residents and officials on Wednesday. Helmand Governor Haji Assadullah Wafa told Reuters over the telephone that a military operation would soon be launched to recapture Musa Qala, which the Taliban over-ran last week. A large number of Taliban fighters had reinforced the town with heavy weapons, a resident told Reuters over the telephone, and NATO spy planes could be heard overhead.