Militants attacks Indian camp in Afghanistan

[herakles]

Militants attacks Indian camp in Afghanistan

Kabul: Militants launched a pre-dawn attack on an Indian road construction camp in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, burning vehicles and equipment and sending the crew fleeing, authorities said.

No deaths or injuries were reported in the attack in Khost province's Domanda district, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Suspected Taliban, who are active in the mountainous eastern region bordering Pakistan, descended on the camp around 2 am.

Such raids seek to discourage foreign involvement in Afghanistan and destabilise the central government, which is struggling to bring development to the impoverished countryside and extend its mandate outside the capital, Kabul.

Elsewhere, two members of a nomadic tribe were killed by a roadside bomb on Friday in the southern province of Kandahar, the ministry said. No details were given.

Following a rancorous week, US and Afghan officials have recommitted to their relationship, with President Barack Obama saying in an interview published on Friday that Karzai remains "a critical partner" in the fight against terrorism.

That followed Karzai's recent stern assertions of Afghan sovereignty and accusations that the United Nations and the international community interfered in last year's fraud-tarnished presidential election in Afghanistan.

 

[EjazR]

There were reports of Afghan officials stopping a suicide attack on Indian in Kabul recently. At least, the stepped security measures by Afghans and Indians seem to be reducing the casualty counts.

---------- Post added at 07:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:19 AM ----------

Anti-India attack averted- Hindustan Times

Another attack on Indian targets in Kabul by the Taliban was averted when suicide bombers linked to the Haqqani network were caught by a surprise swoop by special police units. The bombers were planning a major strike in the Afghan capital.
Afghan intelligence has been warning for the past several weeks of an imminent terrorist strike in Kabul in which Indian targets, including diplomatic ones, featured prominently, said sources in New Delhi.
The Haqqani group has been blamed from number of attacks including bloody strikes on Indian embassy in Kabul in July 2008 and October 2009 which left 75 people dead including officials of the embassy.
The group is also believed to have provided support to a Lashkar e Tayyeba cell that carried out an October 28 assault on a guest house used by UN and Indian workers in which 11 people were killed.
Heavily armed Afghan police stopped the would be bombers at about 7 am on Thursday at a check point in the southeastern suburbs of Kabul as they arrived in a SUV with explosive laden vests hidden in the engine. Police surprised the five bombers who were detained with their lethal baggage.
Their arrest came as for several weeks Afghan and US intelligence had warned of Taliban’s plan to launch more attacks on Kabul’s two neighbourhoods, both housing diplomatic quarters.
Afghan intelligence officials believe that the suicide assaults were designed to show the militants can strike in Kabul at a time when they are under heavy pressure from US and NATO forces in southern Afghanistan.
The five bombers all aged between 20 and 25 who were produced before newsman in Kabul refused to give their names or identities, but Afghan intelligence believe they were sent by the Haqqani network, a Pakistan based Afghan Taliban faction with close ties to Al Qaeda as well as sections of Pakistani intelligence.
The Haqqani group was also suspected to have played a role in the December 30 2009 suicide attack that killed seven CIA and a Jordanian intelligence officer at a forward base in Khost Province.
The network’s leader Jalaluddin Haqqani was a hero of the war against Soviets in the 80s. A US missile strike killed one of his sons Mohammed and three associates early this year.