Deadly blasts in eastern Afghanistan wound 9 Western troops

KABUL — Two explosions in eastern Afghanistan
on Wednesday killed at least three children and an Afghan policeman and
injured dozens of people, including nine Western troops, officials said.

The blasts — one outside the east’s main urban hub
of Jalalabad and the other in troubled Khowst province, scene of last
week’s suicide bombing that killed seven CIA operatives — come on the
heels of what military officials describe as a major offensive against
the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based insurgent group blamed for some of the war’s deadliest attacks.

The Haqqani network, led by Sirajuddin Haqqani, son of a famed Soviet-era militant commander, mainly operates in the east along the border with Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan’s
once-calm north, Afghan officials Wednesday reported the deaths of 14
insurgents who were allegedly attempting to transport a massive load of
explosives into the city of Kunduz, the capital of Kunduz province. The
bomb-laden vehicle exploded prematurely Tuesday night about five miles
north of the city, the Interior Ministry said.

The violence was in line with what intelligence
officials have described as a concerted effort by the Taliban and other
militant groups to keep up pressure on coalition forces in traditional
battlegrounds such as the south and east, at the same time pushing into
parts of the country where Afghan security forces and Western troops
are more thinly deployed, such as the north.

Even when aimed at the security forces, insurgent bombings often kill and injure Afghan civilians.

The midmorning explosion in Rodat district south of
Jalalabad appeared aimed at a symbolically important target: a road
project funded by the United States. Afghan and foreign troops, together with local officials, were visiting the site when the blast took place.

Afghan officials blamed the explosion on a land mine
that detonated when a police truck passed, and termed it a terror
attack. Western military officials, though, said the cause was still
being investigated. The Interior Ministry said a police officer was among the dead.

The nationalities of the nine injured Western troops were not disclosed by NATO, but most of the foreign forces in the east are Americans.

The Interior Ministry said three children were killed, while The Associated Press
quoted the provincial health chief as putting the number at four.
Dozens of onlookers, many of them also youngsters, were injured.

The explosion in Khowst took place in the provincial capital, Khowst city. Forward Operating Base Chapman, where the seven American intelligence agents and a Jordanian intelligence colleague were killed Dec. 30 by a bomber believed to have been a double agent for al-Qaida, lies just outside the city.

Wednesday’s blast took place outside a music store
in a busy market, injuring at least 15 people. There was no immediate
claim of responsibility, but Khowst’s acting governor, Tahr Khan
Sabari, said the shop might have been targeted because of the Taliban
movement’s harsh condemnation of entertainment such as music and films.

Amid the latest violence, NATO’s
International Security Assistance Force detailed nearly two dozen
senior insurgent figures, many from the Haqqani network, who were
captured or killed in the last six weeks. It said all had been involved
in planning attacks against Western and Afghan forces, and in the
cross-border trafficking of fighters, weapons and funds.

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