ISAF soldiers among 9 dead in Faryab attack

MAIMANA (PAN):  A suicide bomber killed nine people, including three foreign soldiers and two Afghan policemen, in the capital of northwestern Faryab province on Wednesday, officials said.

At least 22 people, 18 of them civilians, were wounded in the suicide attack in Maimana, where foreign troops were about to enter the municipality park, the provincial police chief told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Brig. Gen. Abdul Khaliq Aqsayee said he had no idea how many foreign troops were wounded in the bombing. Public Health Director Abdul Ali Haleem put the toll at six civilians dead and 32 injured, including four policemen, a woman and a child, injured.

Meanwhile, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF-led force did not give the victims’ nationalities.

Mohammad Azim, a doctor on duty at the Afghan-Turk Hospital in Maimana, confirmed receiving 21 injured people, including Afghans and foreigners. He said three of the injured civilians succumbed to their injuries and most of the wounded were in critical condition.

As usual, the Taliban asserted responsibility for the bombing, with their spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi saying that eight international troops had been killed and six others injured.

Earlier in the day, police spokesman Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai said six civilians and four policemen were killed in the powerful explosion that left 20 others wounded. He added the assailant was riding an explosives-laden motorbike.

mrh/mud

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