Daily Security Brief: July 21, 2011

BALOCHISTAN, PAKISTAN: Four people were killed and 11 others wounded in a remote-controlled blast targeting a vehicle of the state-owned Oil and Gas Development Corporation Ltd.(OGDCL) in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province on Thursday.

The remote-controlled bomb exploded in the Dera Allahyar town of Jaffarabad district, local police official Khalil Ahmad told Pajhwok Afghan News. The dead and injured, three of them in critical condition, were evacuated to the Jacobabad Civil Hospital.

Police have launched an investigation. Hashim Baloch, a local journalist, said the explosives attached to a motorbike went off around noon, blowing up the OGDCL vehicle. Four employees of the company were killed and seven others injured, he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Baloch nationalists are blamed for much of the violence in the province. The attack came days after five workers of another oil and gas company were abducted in Balochistan.

— Hijratullah

KABUL) said in a statement on Thursday.

Four people were arrested in the Sabri district of the southeastern province of Khost, the NDS statement said. The statement added that 31 kilograms of explosives, remote controlled bombs, RPG shells, hand grenades and other weapons were seized from the insurgents.

The statement also said that the NDS had detained six insurgents with some explosives in the southern province of Kandahar and seized their explosives and weapons.

In Kapisa province, four insurgents led by Qari Brailai and Mullah Samad were detained with two AK-47s, one RPG, two pistols, remote-controlled bombs, and other weapons, the statement said.

LAGHMAN: Five people were killed and nine others wounded during a clash in the eastern province of Laghman, officials said on Thursday.

National Directorate of Security (NDS) officer, Mohammad Rafiq, was killed along with two of his brothers during the clash, he said. One fighter was killed and eight others, including seven civilians, were wounded.

See Pajhwok’s story.

— Obaidullah Baidar & Abdul Mueed Hashmi

PARWAN: At least 17 people were injured in two separate traffic accidents in Kabul and Parwan provinces, officials said on Thursday.

The first accident occurred in the Bagh-i-Rays area of Sarobi district on the Kabul-Jalalabad highway, wounding nine people, said Hazrat Haqbeen, the district chief.

Eight people were injured in a separate incident on the Kabul-Mazar highway. The incident happened in Charikar, the capital of central Parwan province, said Lt. Col. Mohammad Karim, the traffic department chief.

In the second half of last year, 290 people were killed and 2,370 others injured in road crashes on the Kabul-Torkham highway.

— Mueed Hashmi & Farid Tanha

mrh/kg/mud/mbg

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