[A-List] Afghanistan: the blowback continues

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Rocket strike on Afghan peace force inflicts casualties
STEPHEN GRAHAM, Kabul
The Herald, May 24 2004

British troops are helping at the scene of a rocket attack in the Afghan
capital last night in which three Norwegian peacekeepers were injured.

The Ministry of Defence said three rocket-propelled grenades hit a vehicle
carrying peacekeepers along the Jalalabad Road in Kabul last night. No
British soldiers were injured in the attack.

British troops sealed off the road, where a helicopter could be heard
circling overhead. enior Afghan police inspected the scene.

Lieutenant Richard Scarth, a British spokesman, confirmed an investigations
were under way.

The Jalalabad Road is a main route into Kabul, east of which the Nato-led
International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) has several bases.

Militants have stepped up attacks on Afghan and foreign troops in southern
and eastern Afghanistan, casting doubt on plans for landmark elections in
September.

While the capital has been relatively peaceful, commanders of the
6000-strong peacekeeping force, which is separate from the 20,000 mainly US
troops pursuing Taliban-led militants, have remained on guard against
possible attacks.

In January, two soldiers from the international force were killed while out
on patrol in back-to-back suicide bombings, one of them a British soldier on
the Jalalabad Road.

Several home-made bombs also have been discovered on the road this year, and
the peacekeepers' bases also come under occasional rocket fire.

A German soldier was slightly injured in a rocket strike earlier this month.

One of six Isaf helicopter gunships came under fire near Kabul last month.

In other violence, officials said Taliban militants had ambushed government
troops in two troubled southern provinces, killing one and wounding six
others. Suspected Taliban guerrillas also ambushed a vehicle carrying Afghan
troops in the southern Helmand province yesterday, provoking a gun battle in
which four soldiers were injured and one of the assailants killed.

Haji Mohammed Wali, the Helmand governor, said three more Taliban had been
injured in the clash. AP