Human Interest

HUMAN INTEREST. This article matches with human interest because of the emotional issues that the loved ones of the people that died will have to face and deal with.

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WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

3 killed in attack on U.S. base

Casualties said to be Taliban insurgents in what NATO calls a failed attack.

By Rhim Faiez and Rahmat Gul ASSOCIATED PRESS

   MOHMANDARA DISTRICT, AfgHANISTAN — Militants attacked a U.S. base in Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan on Monday, setting off bombs, torching vehicles and shutting down a key road used by NATO supply trucks, officials said. At least three people — apparently all attacking insurgents — were killed.

   The Taliban claimed responsibility for the strike in the Torkham area, the latest in a surge of attacks in Afghanistan as U.S.-led foreign troops reduce their presence en route to a full withdrawal by the end of next year. Militants frequently target NATO’s supply lines in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

   Attacks on Afghan security forces and civilians have also mounted this week killing dozens and adding to fears the draw-down of foreign troops, most of whom are due to leave the country by the end of next year, is allowing insurgents to regain lost territory.

   In a brief statement, NATO confirmed an “unsuccessful coordinated attack by enemy forces” but said none of its personnel were killed. The military alliance generally does not release information on wounded troops. No members of the Afghan security forces or civilians were killed or wounded, according to Esa Khan Zwak, chief administrator in Mohmandara district, in which the base is located.

   Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, said several militants wearing suicide vests and carrying other weapons staged the attack, and that Afghan and U.S. forces exchanged gunfire with the insurgents. NATO helicopters joined the fight, he added.

   The encounter began around 6:30 a.m. and lasted three-and-a-half hours, said Masoum Khan Hashimi, deputy provincial police chief in Nangarhar province. Afghan security forces trying to clear the area were still in the process of defusing a bomb in a car. At least one car bomb also was successfully detonated.

   An Associated Press photographer at the scene saw three bodies of suspected attackers — apparently shot dead from the NATO helicopters. The suspected insurgents didn’t manage to enter the main base area, but had tried to hide under a small canal bridge near it when they were hit.

   The highway between Jalalabad city and Torkham, an important route for NATO supply trucks, was closed. Militants on both sides of the border have frequently targeted the supply line, leading NATO to shift much of its delivery toward routes from Central Asian states instead of through Pakistan.

   In an emailed statement, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the insurgent group was behind Monday morning’s attack, and claimed it had destroyed several tanks — an assertion Hashimi denied.

   The United States has been putting pressure on Afghanistan to finalize a bilateral security agreement (BSA), which will mandate how many, and where, U.S. soldiers will remain once the NATO mission ends.

   Reuters contributed to this story.

POLICE DEATHS ON RISE

   Police deaths in Afghanistan have doubled this year after withdrawing NATO forces handed security of the war-ravaged country to poorly equipped local troops with less frontline experience fighting Taliban insurgents.

   Almost twelve years after coalition forces invaded Afghanistan, swathes of territory are firmly under Taliban control and Afghan troops are still heavily reliant on foreign air support, particularly in remote areas. Their lighter vehicles make them particularly vulnerable to roadside bombs.

   The Afghan government, anxious not to damage morale, has been reluctant to publish regular casualty numbers. It no longer publishes death tolls for the army.

   However, in a speech on Monday, new Interior Minister Umer Daudzai revealed that 1,792 police have been killed since March, most of them by roadside bombs. The same number died in the preceding 12 months.

   It is one of the highest police death rates in the world and raises further questions over how the government will be able to keep the Taliban at bay once foreign troops have withdrawn fully from Afghanistan at the end of 2014.