4 Afghan attacks leave 17 dead

Three in NATO slain as bombs, gunfire also kill police, civilians

An Afghan policeman works Friday amid the rubble after a suicide explosion in Khost.
An Afghan policeman works Friday amid the rubble after a suicide explosion in Khost.

— Attacks in four parts of the country Friday killed two German soldiers, four Afghan police officers, another NATO serviceman and at least 10 civilians.

The most lethal attack occurred in the southeast province of Khost, on the edge of the provincial capital of the same name, where a suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives near a police checkpoint in a crowded shopping area.

The blast left one police officer and 10 civilians dead, said Amir Badshah, director of the public hospital in Khost.

He said 39 people were wounded, with five women critically injured.

People described the blast as unexpected, since Khost City had been relatively calm over the past seven months after an aggressive effort by U.S. troops to capture insurgent leaders and bomb makers in the area.

The insurgency in Khost, which borders Pakistan, is heavily supported by the Haqqani network, allies of the Taliban and the Pakistani military and intelligence services based just over the border in the tribal area of North Waziristan.

Naqeeb Isashas, whose car was slightly damaged in the blast, described it as “terrible,” adding that “the ambulances and police did not come quickly and there were bodies all over.”

The Taliban spokesman for eastern Afghanistan, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying a man named Irshad had driven the car.

The second attack occurred in Baghlan province, a part of northern Afghanistan thought to be safe until last summer.

A man dressed as an Afghan soldier opened fire on German troops at an outpost in Pul-e-Khumri, the provincial capital.

Two Germans died. Gen. Daoud Daoud, the Afghan police commander for the north of the country, said eight Germans were wounded in the attack, which set off a firefight that lasted more than an hour.

NATO and Afghan security forces were still investigating the attack.

Several people complained about the way the foreign forces treated locals, and said it was possible the gunman hadbeen provoked.

“This kind of incident is taking place in Baghlan because the foreign forces do not have good behavior with the Afghan forces, and then incidents take place,” said Alam Khan, a member of the provincial council.

Khan added that he and other officials were concerned that the security forces, which have grown quickly over the past year, were not vetted well enough and that it was possible for the Taliban and other insurgents to infiltrate them.

“It is too easy for Taliban to target foreigners through this way, and maybe he was someone sent by the Taliban,” he said.

The Afghan soldier was part of a joint operation between the German and Afghan militaries, Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said in Berlin.

“Working together carries risks,” said Guttenberg. “Still, this attack may not lead to questioning the partnering [with the Afghan army] that has so far been successful because this would only serve our enemies.”

The third attack took place in Nangarhar province, in eastern Afghanistan, when a roadside bomb exploded under a police truck as security officers were returning from defusing two other roadside bombs, said Ahmadzia Abdul Zaid, the governor’s spokesman.

“Our security forces weregoing to defuse two bombs in the region, but as they were coming back from the area another bomb which was placed for them went off,” said Zaid.

Meanwhile, in southern Afghanistan, a NATO serviceman was killed in an attack Friday, according to a NATO statement.

In other developments, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions Friday against one of the largest money exchange houses in Afghanistan, along with 15 of its executives, on charges that it used billions of dollars transferred in and out of the country to help hide proceeds from illegal-drug sales.

The authorities designated the New Ansari Money Exchange a “major money laundering vehicle,” under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, saying thatthe exchange used its subsidiaries in Dubai to funnel drug money out of Kabul and into U.S. and other international financial institutions. They also imposed sanctions on New Ansari’s senior managers, including some who have ties to President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.

With these actions, the United States has seized any assets New Ansari and its managers hold in the United States. U.S. banks and businesses are prohibited from transactions with those named in the order.

Information for this article was contributed by Sharifullah Sahak, Ginger Thompson and Afghan employees of The New York Times and by Anja Niedringhaus, Deb Riechmann, David Rising, Juergen Baetz, Rebecca Santana and Sagar Meghani of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 02/19/2011

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