KHOST, July 2: Four security personnel were killed and a senior police official wounded when a roadside bomb tore through their 20-vehicle convoy in restive southeastern Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said.
The casualties included two policemen and two Afghan soldiers whose convoy hit a mine, believed to have been planted by Taliban-led insurgents in Paktika province, provincial governor Gulab Mangal told AFP.
Provincial police chief Khair Mohammad Alikhil and three other policemen travelling in the convoy in a parliamentary election-related tour to Khairkot district were also wounded, the governor added.
Some US vehicles were in the convoy but there were no US casualties, he added.
UN spokesman Adrian Edwards said UN vehicles were also part of the convoy and that 10 suspects were detained after a brief firefight that followed the blast.
AIR STRIKES: Meanwhile, US warplanes bombed militants in eastern Afghanistan, the US military said on Saturday, as the search continued for a special forces team that disappeared five days ago during a rescue attempt in which a US helicopter was shot down.
“We had an air strike target an enemy compound on Kunar, which in our assessment we had to hit immediately,” spokesman Lt-Col Jerry O’Hara said.
“The bombardment was done using precision guided munitions,” he added.
Kunar governor Asadullah Wafa said there had been an air strike on Chichal village in Kunar but he could not confirm Taliban claims of civilian casualties.—AFP/Reuters
