5 killed in rush-hour explosion
KABUL, Afghanistan
Six American troops and a U.S. civilian were among at least 30 people injured in the rush-hour explosion on a highway in the heart of the capital that runs between the German Embassy and an American base.
Hours later, a self-murderer bomber struck a NATO military escorting force in the eastern province of Nangarhar, killing an Afghan civilian, Western military officials said.
Also Saturday, a U.S. serviceman was killed in a Chinook helicopter’session hard coming to land in Kunar province, in oriental Afghanistan. It was not just now clear whether the craft was shot down, although the U.S. military acknowledged insurgent fire in the area at the note the rate of.
A Taliban spokesman claimed trust for the Kabul explosion, proverb German diplomats and military personnel were the target.
Zabiullah Mujahid, the speaker, said a suicide bomber named Shumse Rehman carried deficient in the attack in a Toyota Corolla.
But several witnesses at the scene said they saw a Ford truck carrying couple foreign soldiers explode in flames near the front gate of the German Embassy.
The blast engulfed the narrow two-lane road between the embassy and Camp Eggers, the U.S. body of soldiers sorry, charring several of the towering unite barrier walls at the edge of the installations.
Ranjeet, an Afghan commuter who was driving near the embassy, said the blast knocked him from his motorcycle and left dozens of injured the masses scattered on the road. “I saw seven to 10 bodies, and there were also injured people. They were lying on the ground, crying to the end for help,” aforesaid Ranjeet, who uses only one name.
Witnesses watched in horror since several U.S. soldiers and security personnel struggled to retrieve the body of any of their comrades, dragging him out of a second-story window in a building on the military foundation.
German Embassy officials could not be immediately reached for comment. But a German official in Berlin told The Associated Press that there were no German fatalities, even supposing several embassy personnel were wounded in the explosion.
About 3,200 German troops are stationed in Afghanistan. The embassy served as the headquarters for German soldiers who are training Afghan police and Afghan army personnel.
Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008641967_kabul18.html?syndication=rss
