KABUL, Afghanistan — A bombing in western Afghanistan killed four Afghan policemen Tuesday, including a local police chief.
The bomb appeared to be targeting the top police official in Obe district and exploded as his vehicle drove past, said Naqib Arwen, a spokesman for the governor of Herat province, where the blast took place.
“It was a very strong explosion,” he said. “We are investigating, but our initial reports show that it was a remote-controlled bomb.”
Militants targeted another Afghan official Tuesday night in southwest Afghanistan.
Two gunmen wearing suicide-bomb vests attacked the home of an intelligence official in Farah province, setting off a gunbattle in which a guard, and the two assailants were killed.
The intelligence chief was not home at the time, said the police chief of Farah province, Gen. Mohammad Faqir Ahkir.
He said guards were suspicious of the attackers and fired on them, sparking a 15-minute gunbattle. A bullet detonated the explosives vest of one of the two attackers, killing them both and damaging several homes.
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In eastern Afghanistan’s Logar province Monday, a senior Taliban leader believed to have played a role in the kidnapping and subsequent slayings of two U.S. sailors in July was captured along with two of his associates, according to NATO.
NATO said the leader was also responsible for attacks against Shank military base and bombings in the Baraki Barak district of Logar province.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Jarod Newlove and Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin McNeley were driving through a dangerous part of eastern Afghanistan when they became involved in a firefight on July 23. The bodies of the men were eventually recovered.
NATO also said one of its airstrikes Monday killed a senior leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, who was serving as a Taliban chief in the northern Takhar province, where violence is on the rise.
The airstrike killed Qari Mahmad Umar, a bomb expert and trainer responsible for planting bombs in Takhar and Kunduz provinces.
Meanwhile, Iran acknowledged Tuesday that it has been sending funds to neighboring Afghanistan for years, but said the money was intended to aid reconstruction, not to buy influence in the office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Karzai said Monday that he has received millions of dollars in cash from Iran, adding that Washington gives him “bags of money,” too, because his office lacks funds. U.S. officials asserted the money flowing from Tehran was proof that Iran is playing a double game in Afghanistan - wooing the government while helping Taliban insurgents fighting U.S. and NATO forces. Iran denies that.
“Iran has provided the country with plenty of help,” Foreign Ministry spokesmanRamin Mehmanparast said Tuesday in his weekly news briefing in Tehran. “Iran has helped construction of Afghanistan and the preparation of its economic infrastructure, and it will pursue it in the future, too.”
Mehmanparast said Iran’s help began years ago. He said peace and stability in Afghanistan is important for Iran.
The White House disputes Karzai’s assertion that Washington provides him with “bags of money.”
President Barack Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, told reporters Tuesday that the White House is not in the “bigbags-of-cash business.”
Gibbs said Washington does provide aid to Afghanistan - but not bags of money.
In other developments, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the U.N. Security Council that there will be no peace agreement with the Taliban in Afghanistan that undermines the rights of women.
Clinton spoke at a special session of the Security Councilmarking the 10th anniversary of the resolution that affirmed the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts.
Clinton announced $44 million in U.S. initiatives “designed to empower women” around the world, including $17 million to support nongovernmental groups working to improve the status of women in Afghanistan. She said respect for women’s rights in Afghanistan was an “essential element of democracy and stability.” Information for this article was contributed by Nasser Karimi of The Associated Press, and by Bill Varner of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 10/27/2010