Afghanistan: 11 killed, 9 wounded in 4 suicide attacks
World
Afghanistan: 11 killed, 9 wounded in 4 suicide attacks
Four suicide attackers stormed an army recruitment centre in northern Afghanistan early Sunday sparking a gun battle that left 11 soldiers dead and nine others wounded.The bus was attacked by two suicide bombers, who killed five army personnel and wounded another nine. The vehicle was on its daily run driving staff from the Kabul military training centre to work when two suicide attackers armed with automatic rifles opened fire. One of the suicide attackers was shot dead but the second managed to detonate his explosives strapped to his body and martyred five of our personnel and wounded another nine, said Azimi. The incident took place on Pul-e-charkhi road, which links the capital Kabul to Afghanistan's eastern provinces and runs on to the Pakistani border. There are many foreign military bases and Afghan security forces' training facilities along the route, so that it is frequently taken by Afghan and NATO-led troops. Kabul has been relatively peaceful over the last year, but the road has seen a number of bloody attacks against security forces.Separately four suicide attackers stormed an army recruitment centre in northern Kunduz province early Sunday, sparking a gun battle that left two soldiers dead and three others wounded, officials said.Kunduz is one of the most volatile provinces in the relatively peaceful north of Afghanistan.Meanwhile one civilian was killed Sunday morning and four children were wounded when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in Panjwayi district, in the troubled province of Kandahar. The driver of the civilian vehicle was killed and four children were wounded, Baran Khaksar, the district chief, told AFP.Home-made bombs or IEDs are weapons of choice for the Taliban insurgents who have been waging an increasingly deadly insurgency against the Western-backed government and its allies after they were ousted from power in 2001 by a US-led invasion.The south and east of the war-torn country suffer the brunt of the violence.Last week NATO said it would battle hard through the bitter Afghan winter, which usually signals a lull in fighting, keeping up pressure on the insurgency until spring.US military leaders back the government's plan for the Afghan police and army to assume responsibility for security by 2014, with the timetable agreed at a major NATO summit in Lisbon last month.The Taliban has claimed responsibility for both attacks.
