Afghan security forces supported by US air power have retaken the center of volatile Nawa district from the Taliban in southern Helmand province, US officials said Monday. Backed by strikes from F-16 fighters and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, Afghan troops began the two-day operation Saturday near the city of Lashkar Gar, which is the capital … Read more
Twenty people were killed Thursday when a powerful car bomb struck a bank in Afghanistan’s Lashkar Gah city as government employees were queueing to withdraw salaries, the latest bloody attack during the holy month of Ramadan. At least 50 wounded people were rushed to hospital after the bombing at New Kabul Bank which upturned vehicles, … Read more
A powerful car bomb Thursday struck a bank in Afghanistan’s Lashkar Gah city when civilian and military government employees were queueing to withdraw their salaries, causing multiple casualties, officials said. At least 50 wounded people were rushed to hospital, government spokesman Omar Zwak told AFP, with another official warning of multiple fatalities. No group has … Read more
A US air strike killed at least two Afghan policemen and wounded four others in Helmand, officials said Saturday, in apparently the first “friendly fire” incident since American Marines returned to the southern province in April. Afghan border police were on a patrol in the volatile district of Nad Ali when they came under fire … Read more
At least 11 civilians were killed when a roadside bomb ripped through their vehicle in the restive southern Afghan province of Helmand, officials said Saturday. The blast occurred when the passengers were travelling from remote Nawa district to the provincial capital Lashkar Gah on Friday, government spokesman Omar Zhwak told AFP. “The blast was powerful … Read more
Taliban fighters captured the strategic southern district of Sangin on Thursday, officials said, another setback for Afghan forces in opium-rich Helmand province ahead of the spring fighting season. The capture of Sangin, where US and British forces suffered heavy casualties until it was handed over to Afghan personnel, marks the culmination of the Taliban’s year-long … Read more
An Afghan policeman linked to the Taliban shot dead 11 of his colleagues at a checkpoint in the southern province of Helmand, officials said Tuesday, in the latest so-called “insider attack”. The incident occurred late Monday as the policemen were sleeping in their barracks in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah. “A policeman affiliated to the … Read more
The UN voiced “grave concern” Sunday over the killing of at least 25 civilians in the escalating conflict in the southern opium-rich province of Helmand, most of them in US air strikes. American bombardment in Sangin on Thursday and Friday killed 18 people, nearly all women and children, the United Nations said, as fierce fighting … Read more
At least six people were killed Saturday when a Taliban bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into Afghan soldiers who had queued outside a bank in southern Helmand province to collect their salaries, officials said. Nearly two dozen others, including women and children, were wounded in the explosion in the capital Lashkar Gah, many of them … Read more