Two U.S. service members were killed in an insurgent attack in Afghanistan on Saturday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.
The attack occurred in the country's eastern Ghazni province, ISAF said, not giving any further details.
ISAF said identification of victims is deferred to the Department of Defense.
In a separate incident early Saturday, two suicide attackers -- one driving a fuel tanker -- blew themselves up near a U.S. base in the eastern Wardak province, killing at least 12 people, officials said.
The violence served as a reminder that even after a decade of fighting, tens of thousands of U.S. and foreign troops are still engaged in a war that shows no signs of slowing down despite the start of a withdrawal of coalition forces.
Seventeen villagers beheaded in southern Afghanistan after 'music party'
The U.S.-led NATO coalition said that no American or coalition troops were killed in the suicide blasts in the town of Sayed Abad, about 40 miles from Kabul. It confirmed that a number of troops were wounded, but did not say how many, in accordance with coalition policy.
NBC's Richard Engel discusses the troop "surge" in Afghanistan – something touted as a success by the military, but questioned by many Afghans and also some in the U.S. who worry the troops will leave in 2014 with Afghanistan as a failed state.
Shahidullah Shadid, a spokesman for the Wardak provincial governor, said one suicide bomber detonated a vest rigged with explosives outside a compound housing the district governor's office as well as local police and Afghan army headquarters. A second bomber driving a fuel tanker detonated his bomb on a road separating the compound from the base.
Shadid said the dead included eight civilians and four Afghan police.
'No one really cares': US deaths in Afghanistan hit 2,000 in 'forgotten' war
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack, which he said was targeting the U.S. base.
Government officials said the first attacker blew himself up to try to eliminate the Afghan security force guarding the compound and clear the way for the truck to hit the base down the road from the governor's complex. The second bomber then blew up the fuel tanker as he was approaching the base. One of the town's main bazaars is also located near the bomb site.
The Pentagon issues new guidelines to U.S. troops in Afghanistan following a deadly week. NBC's Atia Abawi reports.
"A small explosion happened followed by a big one caused by a truck," said eyewitness Hamidullah, who like many Afghans goes by one name. "In these explosions a lot of people were wounded and also a large number of shops were destroyed. I fell down on the ground and everything around me was destroyed."
Officials said the second blast was far larger than the first.
"It was a very powerful explosion. It broke windows all over the area," said provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Qayum Bakizai. "Most of the injuries are from broken glass from the windows of homes and shops. It was so powerful we couldn't find much of the truck."
The governor's office said in a statement that 59 people were wounded: two NATO troops, 47 civilians and ten Afghan police officers.
Hoshang Hashimi / AP
More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.
Last year, the same base in Wardak was the target of another suicide bombing. That blast, which occurred on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the United States, wounded 77 American soldiers and killed five Afghans. No U.S. troops were killed when the massive truck bomb exploded outside the base.
The United States and other countries have already begun drawing down their forces in Afghanistan as part of a strategy that aims to hand over security responsibility to the Afghans by the end of 2014, when nearly all foreign troops are set to leave the country. President Barack Obama has pledged to remove 23,000 U.S. troops by the end of September, bringing the number of American forces down to 68,000.
What's leading Afghan troops to turn on coalition forces?
There are currently 129,000 troops serving with the coalition, according to US Maj. Gen. Joseph Reynes Jr., director of operations at the Allied Joint Forces Command in Brunssum, the Netherlands. He said earlier this week that the number will drop to 108,000 by the end of October and dip under 100,000 by the end of the year.
The troops are to be replaced by Afghan army and police units, but many have questioned the effectiveness of an Afghan force that has high desertion rates and is often poorly disciplined. The Afghan security forces are supposed to reach a high of about 350,000 at the end of the year.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
More world stories from NBC News:
- 'Big enough for all of us': Clinton says US can work with China in Pacific
- ISAF: 2 US service members killed in Afghanistan
- Report: Ireland hospitals to send some patients home on weekends
- Assad stays cool amid reports of bread-line slaughter
- Ex-Marine on her journey from homelessness to the Paralympics
- Red Cross halts most Pakistan aid in wake of beheading
- Unexploded WWII bomb disrupts Amsterdam airport
- Pakistani Christians live in fear after girl's blasphemy arrest
- 'A less polar pole': Arctic sea ice at record low
- Botched restoration turns Spanish church into tourist attraction
Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario