9 Afghan Civilians Killed in Suicide Attack in Khost
By VOA News
18 August 2008
U.S. and Afghan officials say a suicide bombing outside a U.S. military base in eastern Afghanistan has killed nine Afghan civilians and wounded 13 others.
Officials say the car bombing Monday in Khost province did not penetrate the military base.
The governor of Khost province, Arsala Jamal, says the victims from the blast were Afghan laborers. He says a second attacker approached authorities investigating the first blast, but was shot dead before detonating explosives.
The attack comes as thousands of extra police officers are on duty in the capital, Kabul, to prevent attacks on today's Independence Day celebrations.
Officials say the security operation is the largest in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
They say the measures aim to create an environment of trust and to disrupt potential threats.
Earlier, NATO said its troops accidentally killed four Afghan civilians and wounded three others Saturday in the southern province of Helmand. The British government says its troops were involved in the deaths. It promised to investigate and expressed sympathy to the victims.
Separately, an Afghan official says Afghan forces killed 32 Taliban fighters Sunday in the southern province of Zabul after the rebels attacked a NATO supply convoy.
At least five security guards also died in the fighting on a main highway linking Afghanistan's southern and western regions with Kabul. Officials said Sunday that Afghan forces killed another seven militants in a separate battle in Zabul.
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