- (AP) - KABUL, Afghanistan - An attack on a patrol
killed an American soldier, the third U.S. fatality this week in Afghanistan,
the military said Wednesday, amid a flurry of attacks that wounded over
a dozen Americans in the run-up to the Oct. 9 presidential election.
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- Meanwhile, a group of 11 prisoners, including a former
Taliban commander, arrived home from the U.S. jail at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
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- The soldier died in an attack on a security patrol on
Monday in Khost province, said Maj. Scott Nelson, a military spokesman,
but he provided no further details.
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- The military had already announced the death of two U.S.
troops Monday in another incident - an attack in neighboring Paktika province.
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- The two were killed by mortar fire when a "large
force of anti-coalition militants" attacked a security patrol in Paktika.
Six Afghan soldiers were wounded.
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- The U.S.-led force called in A-10 ground-attack aircraft
and a B-1 bomber, which dropped two 500-pound bombs on the attackers. At
least militants were killed, Nelson said.
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- U.S.-led troops clashed with militants in eight separate
locations Monday, he said. A total of 14 Americans were injured and one
Afghan soldier was listed as missing, he said.
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- Two Americans wounded by a roadside bomb were being taken
to Germany for treatment for "non-life-threatening" injuries,
Nelson said. He didn't give details of the other injuries.
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- More than 900 people have died in political violence
across Afghanistan this year, underlining the country's continued instability
more than three years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks triggered a U.S.
campaign to oust the Taliban and their al-Qaida allies.
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- Since then, Taliban holdouts and anti-government factions
have sustained an insurgency across the south and east, despite the presence
of up to 20,000 U.S.-led troops and an offer of amnesty by President Hamid
Karzai to all but a few dozen leaders.
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- Karzai has released hundreds of Taliban prisoners from
Afghan jails ahead of the election, and on Wednesday officials presented
11 Afghans freed from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
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- "The prisoners have shown their strong support for
the peace-building and reconstruction process of the country and have intended
to take active part in it," Karzai's office said.
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- A U.S. military spokesman said the prisoners were released
at the Afghan government's request.
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- They included Naim Kuchi, a leader of Afghanistan's nomadic
Kuchi tribe, who was detained near Kabul by U.S. forces in January 2003.
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- Kuchi served as a commander in Logar province during
Taliban rule and retained his status as tribal leader after the fall of
the hard-line regime.
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- At the time, the military provided no explanation for
his arrest, although human rights groups said he was detained on suspicion
of weapons smuggling.
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- Paraded briefly at Karzai's downtown palace, Kuchi declined
to answer reporters' questions.
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- Another former prisoner, Bader Zaman Bader, said he was
interrogated "150 times" by his American jailers but never abused.
However, another from the group, who declined to give his name, insisted
he was beaten "incredibly."
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- U.S. and allied Afghan forces captured thousands of suspected
Taliban and al-Qaida members during and since the bombing campaign which
ousted the Taliban.
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- Hundreds were classified as "enemy combatants"
and transferred to Guantanamo Bay. It is unclear how many Afghans remain
among some 550 prisoners still held there.
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- The Taliban drew much of their support from Pashtuns,
Afghanistan's traditional rulers and largest ethnic group, many of whom
resent the influence of minorities in the current government.
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- One of Karzai's main election challengers on Wednesday
criticized his reconciliation efforts as "dangerous."
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- "Don't forget the crimes of the Taliban against
the people of Afghanistan," said Mohammed Mohaqeq, a former commander
in the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance.
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