14 dead, 16 injured in Kandahar assaults

KANDAHAR CITY (PAN): Seven insurgents were killed and 10 coalition troops wounded in a fierce clash triggered by a suicide attack on foreign military base in the southern province of Kandahar on Tuesday morning, officials said.

The Taliban) base in the Delhi Band area of Shah Wali Kot district at about 3.30am, the town’s police chief told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Col. Pacha said the assault touched off a gunbattle, wounding 10 coalition soldiers and killing all seven attackers, whose bodies were still lying at the scene. He added details of the incident were yet to emerge.

But Javed Faisal, the governor’s spokesman, denied injuries to the NATO-led soldiers in the engagement. He said an ISAF contractor, who was wounded in the strike, later succumbed to his injuries.

Meanwhile, the ISAF media office in Kabul verified the clash. In response to a Pajhwok email, an ISAF spokesman said: “I can confirm that seven insurgents were killed during an attack on a coalition installation in Shah Wali Kot.”

With details of the attack under investigation, the NATO-led force refused to say anything about coalition casualties.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, claimed a large number of US military personnel were killed and wounded in the suicide attack. The casualties were airlifted from the site by four helicopters, he said.

Also on Tuesday, three policemen were killed and six others wounded in a similar assault in Kandahar City, the provincial capital. Four assailants were also killed in the ensuing firefight.

A group of suicide bombers stormed a security check-post in the Old City, Faisal said, adding that three policemen and four militants died in the clash that took place at about 6.30am in the 6th district of the province. Six members of the police force were also injured in the 15-minute fighting.

Giving a witness account, Ahmadullah said the heavy fire exchange lasted about 20 minutes. When the clash ended, government forces took control of the situation, he added.

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