11 Afghan landmine clearers abducted, bomb kills intelligence officer

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

KABUL, Afghanistan — Unidentified kidnappers have abducted 11 Afghans working in a U.N.-affiliated landmine clearing program in the east of the country, officials said Saturday.

The 11 were taken Thursday in a remote part of Nangarhar province, said Hazrat Hussain Mashreqiwal, provincial police spokesman. He did not name the abductors but said local officials and tribal elders were trying to negotiate the mine clearers’ freedom.

According to the United Nations there are an estimated 10 million mines scattered throughout 150 of Afghanistan’s 400 districts, a legacy of 30 years of war. Children and farmers face the most serious threats from the discarded explosive devices. On Friday three children in central Ghazni province were killed when they tried to dismantle an old bomb.

Also Saturday, a series of bombings targeted Afghanistan’s intelligence and security personnel.

In a remote corner of northeastern Afghanistan a bomb killed an intelligence officer at his home, while in eastern Afghanistan a remote-controlled bomb ripped through a police vehicle killing two and injuring three other police officers, many of them seriously. A third bombing in Afghanistan’s northern Faryab province wounded the district police chief.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for any of the bombings but Taliban insurgents have been targeting Afghan National Security Forces with deadly regularity. In the first four months of this year more than 400 Afghan security personnel have been killed in insurgent attacks compared with 224 in the same period last year.

For the first time in Afghanistan’s 12-year war, Afghan Security Forces are taking the lead in the battle against insurgents in nearly 90 per cent of the country. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, in Afghanistan for talks on a key bilateral pact, said Afghan security forces will be in the lead in 100 per cent of the country by the end of the year, ahead of the withdrawal of international combat troops in 2014.

Mohammed Zahir, spokesman for Nuristan’s governor, said the province’s deputy intelligence chief Faiz Mohammed was killed when a bomb planted inside his home exploded. It wasn’t immediately known how the bomb was detonated.

In eastern Nagarhar province, Ahmed Zia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said that a remote-controlled roadside bomb detonated as a police vehicle passed. People in the area chased three men who appeared to throw away a detonating device. Abdulzai said three men were arrested — one Pakistani and two Afghan nationals.

Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of allowing safe havens for insurgents on its territory. It also charges that Pakistani militants are among the foreign insurgents aiding the Taliban in its battle against government forces. Pakistan denies the allegations.

11:48ET 11-05-13