A U.S. combat engineer prepares a charge of C-4 explosives to destroy hand grenades recovered from weapons caches found near Fire Base Shkin

By Husbanullah Metawakel, IOL Afghanistan Correspondent

PESHAWAR, June 25 (IslamOnline.net) – Two U.S. soldiers were killed and another two injured in an attack on a U.S. patrol on Monday, June 23, east of Afghanistan, eyewitnesses told IslamOnline.net.

Two Afghan soldiers were also killed in a separate incident the same day in an attack on a patrol, they added.

The witnesses said that a U.S. military vehicle was patrolling Berouni square in the city of Asadabat, east of Afghanistan, and drove over a landmine planted by unidentified persons, who set off the mine through a detonator, causing the causalities.

Two passers-by, they said, were also wounded by U.S. stray bullets, adding that the attackers succeeded in making their escape.

In another development, armed persons attacked an Afghan patrol, which included two military vehicles near the area of Bermil adjacent to the Pakistani borders, the Afghan News Online agency said.

Afghan troops clashed with the attackers for more than half an hour, leaving two Afghan soldiers killed, other four injured and one of the two vehicles destroyed, it said.

According to the agency, U.S. warplanes patrolled the area but failed to capture the attackers.

U.S. and Afghan troops have come under a series of attacks from fleeing members of al-Qaeda and the ousted Taliban over the past few months, particularly in the eastern and southeastern parts of the war-torn country.

Taliban fighters formed death squads to target Afghan officials in order to avenge the deaths of fellow fighters killed by the U.S. forces and their "proxy" Afghan government, according to Pashtu-language pamphlets distributed in Afghanistan's restive southeast.

The pamphlets, circulated across the Afghan border town of Spin Boldak, opposite the Pakistani town of Chaman, also urged local people to join the fighting against the government of Hamid Karzai.

In exclusive statements to IOL on May 10, Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah downplayed the importance of the latest series of attacks which were blamed on Taliban and al-Qaeda.

He said that "a few remnants" of Taliban, who fled to mountains, were responsible for such attacks, adding that the Afghan government would crack down on them.

U.S. troops launched Saturday, June 21, a sweeping manhunt operation on the Afghan-Pakistani borders to crack down on remnants of Taliban and al-Qaeda, believing they were holing up in the mountains of the two states of Konar and Nagarhar.

Earlier in the month, U.S. forces captured four suspected Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan during Operation Dragon Fury.

Some 500 troops, mostly from the 82nd Airborne Division, were involved in the two-day operation in a mountainous district of Nagarhar state, 40-50 kilometers (25-30 miles) from the Pakistan border.

"Intelligence sources have indicated there is a cell of al-Qaeda or Taliban operating in the mountains. This is one of the hottest areas in Afghanistan," Major Jack Marr said before the operation.

A Pakistani daily reported Tuesday that the leader of the ousted Taliban regime, Mullah Mohammad Omar, urged  his followers to step up “jihad” against the U.S. and other foreign occupation forces in Afghanistan.

He issued the call in an audio tape sent from his hiding place in Afghanistan, The News said, quoting Taliban spokesman Mohammad Mukhtar Mujahid.

While a new constitution is currently being prepared for Afghanistan under U.S. supervision, former Afghani Premiere and head of the Islamic Party Gulbuddin Hekmatyar slammed the attempt as a game of the "puppet government" to legitimatize the presence of the U.S.-led occupation forces.

Being under U.S. occupation and the lack of a central government that controls all Afghani states are not suitable circumstances to issue a constitution, Hekmatyar said in a statement a copy of which was sent to IOL on Wednesday, June 18.