Suicide Attacks in Normally Peaceful Herat Kill 4
VOA News May 30, 2011
Authorities in western Afghanistan say twin suicide attacks in the city of Herat have killed four people and wounded at least 33 others.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bomb attacks, which struck an Italian military base and a separate area in the downtown part of the city.
Local officials say the four killed were Afghans, as were most of those injured.
Italy's defense minister,Ignazio La Russa, said five Italian troops were injured in the blast, with one in serious condition. An Italian-led provincial reconstruction team in Herat is made up of military and civilian workers assigned to help strengthen Afghan officials' ability to govern the province.
Herat, a normally peaceful area near Afghanistan's border with Iran, is one of seven places where Afghan security forces are due to replace foreign troops during July.
Violence has increased sharply across Afghanistan this month since the Taliban said it was beginning a spring offensive.
In southern Afghanistan Monday, a person wearing an Afghan army uniform shot dead a NATO service member. The alliance did not say whether the attacker was an actual soldier or a militant in disguise.
In the east of the country, NATO says two service members were killed by an improvised explosive device. Also a NATO soldier was killed when a helicopter made a hard landing.
In Kabul, coalition forces have apologized for the death of Afghan civilians killed in a NATO airstrike in southern Afghanistan on Saturday.
NATO says the erroneous airstrike killed nine civilians in the Nawzad district of Helmand province. Afghan authorities say the airstrike killed 14 people - two women and 12 children - in two houses, and wounded six other civilians.
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