Afghan Bomb Attack Kills Police Chiefs; ISAF Condemns ‘Senseless Murder'
By Paul Tighe - May 29, 2011 6:37 AM GMT+0530
A suicide bomber killed two police chiefs at a meeting of Afghan and coalition officials in the northern province of Takhar, an incident theInternational Security Assistance Force called “senseless murder.”
General Mohammad Daud Daud and the Takhar provincial police chief were among seven people killed in yesterday’s attack, ISAF said in a statement on its website. General Daud was the police commander forAfghanistan’s northern region, the Associated Press reported, citing the provincial health director. German General Markus Kneip, the ISAF force commander in the north, was injured, AP said.
“ISAF strongly condemns the senseless murder of these Afghan and coalition members who have fought so hard for the people of Afghanistan,” Rear Admiral Vic Beck, ISAF director of public affairs, said in the statement.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization increased security after the Taliban said earlier this month it would attack government offices and military bases in a new spring offensive. Afghan and coalition forces three weeks ago repelled an assault by Taliban fighters, including fivesuicide bombers, on government and military buildings in the southern city of Kandahar.
The suicide bomber yesterday attacked the governor’s office in Takhar after a meeting of Afghan and coalition officials, ISAF said. Nine people were injured in the incident, it said.
Governor Hurt
Abdul Jabar Taqwa, the provincial governor of Takhar, suffered burns to his head, hands and back in the attack, AP reported. General Shah Jahan Noori, Takhar’s police chief, was among those killed, it cited provincial Health Director Hassain Basech as saying.
Kneip was slightly wounded, the Deutsche Presse-Agentur news agency cited German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere as saying yesterday in Berlin.
Germany has 5,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, the largest group in NATO’s 50,000-strong ISAF contingent that is drawn from 47 nations.
The U.S. has about 97,000 soldiers in the country after last year adding 30,000 to its force. President Barack Obama’s administration is deciding how many troops will leave when a withdrawal program begins in July.
The Taliban, which gave shelter to Osama bin Laden’s al- Qaeda movement, were ousted from power by the U.S.-led coalition that invaded Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. Bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy SEAL commandos in Pakistan on May 2.
Western militaries are preparing to hand over security to Afghan forces in all the country’s provinces by 2014, a target date set by NATO leaders at a summit meeting in Lisbon last November. By July, Afghanistan’s national army will take over security in three provinces and four cities, President Hamid Karzai said in March.
To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net
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