- KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters)
-- At least two Afghans and a U.S. soldier have been killed and 15 people
wounded in separate incidents in Afghanistan, police and the U.S. military
say.
-
- The U.S. central command said a U.S. soldier was killed
and nine others wounded by a mine near Ghazni on Friday. The incident was
under investigation and no further details were available.
-
- In Khost, at least two Afghans were killed and six wounded
in an explosion at a government military post near the former Taliban stronghold
in southeastern Afghanistan, police said.
-
- The blast came hours after more than 20 rockets landed
near Khost's airport, where U.S.-led forces are based, they said.
-
- It was the biggest single rocket attack since the fall
of the Taliban in late 2001, but U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel
Bryan Hilferty reported no casualties.
-
- "There were no coalition casualties," he said
in a statement.
-
- Coalition forces returned fire with artillery and precision-guided
bombs but "at this time there is no indication of anti-coalition militia
casualties", Hilferty said.
-
- The attacks in Khost are the latest in a wave of incidents
which more than 550 people have been killed in the last six months, mostly
in southern and eastern Afghanistan where the Taliban militia remnants
are most active.
-
- The incidents came two days after Khost's deputy intelligence
chief was shot dead by a suspected Taliban militant who then blew himself
up to avoid being arrested.
-
- Khost used to be part of the heartland of the Taliban,
overthrown by U.S.-led troops for harbouring Osama bin Laden and his al
Qaeda network.
-
- U.S. soldiers in Khost, part of the 10,600-strong American-led
force hunting al Qaeda and remnants of the Taliban, regularly come under
rocket attacks and ambushes, most of which are ineffective.
-
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