Suicide Bomber Kills 8 Americans in Afghanistan
VOA News 30 December 2009
U.S. officials say a suicide bomber has killed eight American civilians at a U.S. military base in eastern Afghanistan.
The officials say the bomber detonated his explosive vest inside the Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost province on Wednesday. The military said no U.S. or NATO troops were killed or wounded in the blast, but few other details about the incident were released.
The base is used to support reconstruction efforts and other civilian operations in Afghanistan.
Khost borders Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region, where Taliban militants and their allies launch cross-border attacks.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for international troops in Afghanistan says NATO so far has no direct evidence to back up Afghan government claims that foreign troops killed 10 civilians in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday.
Colonel Wayne Shanks told reporters Wednesday that NATO has requested an immediate joint investigation into the incident.
Afghan government investigators earlier concluded that foreign troops killed civilians - including school children - during Sunday's operation in Kunar province.
An advisor to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Asadullah Wafa, says his team spoke with villagers and officials in Kunar province's Narang district and determined the dead included eight teenagers. The victims were buried before the Afghan team arrived.
NATO released a statement Wednesday saying its forces were targeting insurgents when troops came under fire. The alliance says nine people were killed when NATO forces returned fire.
Hundreds of university students took to the streets in Kabul and in the eastern city of Jalalabad Wednesday to protest the killings.
The United Nations released figures Tuesday indicating civilian deaths in Afghanistan rose more than 10 percent in the first 10 months of this year compared to the same period in 2008. The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has made protecting civilians a top priority for foreign troops in Afghanistan.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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