Over 50 killed in Afghan violence since Saturday

Kabul, Dec 2 (IANS) More than 50 people, most of them militants, have been killed in Afghanistan since Saturday morning, Xinhua reported Sunday.

Fourteen people were killed when Taliban carried out multiple suicide bombings and armed attack against an Afghan-NATO military base located in a local airport in Nangarhar province’s Jalalabad city early Sunday.

“Nine anti-government militants, three Afghan security members and two civilians were killed in Sunday morning’s attack against Jalalabad airport,” a local government statement said.

The attack began at about 5.30 a.m. after two Taliban suicide bombers rammed their explosives-laden car into the entrance of the base and blew it up, sparking a gunfight between militants and the security forces in the base being run by Afghan and US forces in the city, 120 km from Kabul.

Three other suicide bombers detonated their suicide vests shortly after the car bombings, according to the statement while four other militants were shot dead by the security forces.

Up to 11 Afghan soldiers and three civilians were also wounded in the blasts. The clash lasted for two hours, the statement said, adding “the attackers were using the Afghan army uniform to mask themselves but their efforts to enter the base was foiled”.

Earlier Sunday, two policemen and two Taliban were killed when militants stormed police checkpoints in Baghlan province, 160 km north of Kabul.

The Afghan Interior Ministry has also confirmed that the Afghan army and police supported by the coalition forces killed 27 Taliban militants since Saturday in different parts of the country.

“During the operations in Nangarhar, Baghlan, Balkh, Kandahar, Zabul, Uruzgan, Maidan Wardak, Logar, Farah, Helmand and Nimroz provinces, 34 more insurgents have been detained,” the ministry said in a statement.

Separately, an International Security Assistance Force soldier died in a militant attack in southern Afghanistan this morning.

In Uruzgan province, three civilians were killed and four others wounded in a suicide bomb attack Saturday.

IANS 2012-12-02 21:52:06