Afghan attacks kill U.S. diplomat, soldiers, others <http://www.reuters.com/> Description: ReutersReuters
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A car bomb blast killed five Americans,
including three U.S. soldiers and a young diplomat, on Saturday, while an
American civilian died in a separate attack in the east.
The diplomat and other Americans were in a convoy of vehicles in Zabul
province when the blast occurred, Secretary of State John Kerry said in a
statement.
The soldiers and the diplomat died in the blast along with a civilian
employee of the Defence Department and Afghan civilians, Kerry said. His
statement gave no overall death toll.
The Washington Post identified the diplomat as Anne Smedinghoff, 25, citing
her parents. Smedinghoff was Kerry's embassy guide and aide when he visited
Afghanistan last month, the paper said.
Local and international officials in the region said earlier that six people
died in the blast: three U.S. soldiers, two U.S. civilians and an Afghan
doctor.
Provincial governor Mohammad Ashraf Nasery was in the convoy, but was
unharmed, local and NATO officials said.
"Our American officials and their Afghan colleagues were on their way to
donate books to students in a school in Qalat, the province's capital, when
they were struck by this despicable attack," Kerry said in his statement.
He said he had met the diplomat during a trip to Kabul, and spoke to her
parents after her death. Four other U.S. diplomats were wounded, one
critically, Kerry said in his statement.
The convoy was near a hospital and a NATO base at the time of the explosion.
Five Afghans, including a student and two reporters, were wounded, a local
official said.
The attack came as the top U.S. general, Martin Dempsey, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in the country for a short visit to assess
how much training Afghan troops need before U.S. troops pull out as planned
by the end of 2014.
In an attack in Afghanistan's east, an American civilian working with the
U.S. government was killed during an insurgent attack, the NATO-led
International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.
Zabul shares borders with Pakistan to the southeast and Kandahar province,
the birthplace of the Taliban, to the south.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Zabul attack in a text message
from spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi. He said a car bomb killed seven
foreigners and wounded five others, although he later revised the toll to 13
foreigners killed and nine wounded.
The Taliban routinely exaggerates casualty figures.
The killings followed a bloody Taliban assault in the country's west on
Wednesday that killed 44 people in a courtroom in Farah province. The United
Nations says civilians are being increasingly targeted.
In a statement posted online earlier on Saturday, Ahmadi said the Taliban
would continue to target Afghan judges and prosecutors.
"The Islamic Emirate, from today onwards, will keep a close watch over
courthouses, all its personnel and all those who try to harm Mujahideen and
will deal with them the same as the judges and prosecutors of Farah."
(Reporting by Ismail Sameem, additional reporting by Paul Eckert; Writing by
Dylan Welch and Diane Bartz; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Xavier Briand)
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
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