ISAF forces come under attack frequently

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, October 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - At least six people were killed and seven others injured Friday, October 3, in a massive explosion which destroyed several houses outside the U.S.-led military coalition's main base in Afghanistan, rescue workers said.

The latest victims of insecurity - two years after the U.S. attacked Afghanistan - fell as U.S. troops and militants fought each other with artillery and rockets in the violence-wracked southeast of the war-ravaged country but there were no casualties, according to the U.S. military.

"Four bodies have been discovered under the rubble and two others were totally destroyed," said an Afghan interpreter working with the U.S. military and involved in the rescue effort near Bagram Air Base 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Kabul, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Witnesses had earlier put the toll at seven dead.

U.S. military police at the northeast gate to Bagram Air Base said seven injured people had also been taken to the base's military hospital for treatment.

The blast took place in Qala-e-Gulai village, less than a kilometer (half a mile) from the base.

No official casualty figure was immediately available.

Villager Mohammad Nazim told AFP the explosion occurred when people in the house were attempting to dismantle a bomb to remove the explosives to sell.

Other villagers said many people in the village were involved in the lucrative but dangerous business of dismantling old munitions to sell the explosives to miners searching for precious stones in the Panjshir valley north of Kabul.

Dozens of soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition sealed off the area and ambulances and emergency vehicles were at the site of the explosion which destroyed several houses, an AFP correspondent at the scene saw.

One body was seen being removed from the destroyed house at the center of the blast, with shrapnel scattered around the site.

Earlier, U.S. military spokesman Colonel Rodney Davis said the base was rattled by two explosions outside its perimeter gate.

"About 9:45 (0515 GMT) this morning we heard two explosions outside the Bagram gate off-post, it seem to come from the vicinity of the town," Davis told reporters.

"We are investigating at this time. We are coordinating with the local Afghan authorities."

Afghanistan is awash with weapons after two decades of war. Explosives and munitions stores have in the past been set off by power short circuits and other accidents.

Six people were killed on September 19 in two accidental blasts at an explosives-filled house in the same area and nine were killed on the same day in a similar blast at an explosives dealer's house in Mehtarlam, Laghman province east of Kabul.

Bagram Air Base is the headquarters of the 12,500-strong U.S.-led coalition hunting Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters.

The base, once the front-line during the Afghan civil war and a former Soviet air base, is in one of the most heavily-mined areas north of Kabul.

U.S. forces cordon the site of a September 19 attack near their base

Meanwhile, militants Thursday fired up to nine rockets at the U.S.-led coalition's Urgun base near the Pakistan border, prompting coalition artillery and machinegun fire, U.S. Colonel Rodney Davis told reporters at the coalition's Bagram Air Base headquarters.

Davis did not say who fired the rockets but similar attacks have been blamed on Taliban remnants, their Al-Qaeda allies or fighters loyal to former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Small-caliber rockets are the weapon of choice for Taliban fighters but they are inaccurate and rarely hit their targets or cause any casualties.

Urgun, some 180 kilometers (112 miles) south of Kabul, and other bases in Paktika province have been regularly targeted by suspected Taliban fighters alleged to be regrouping over the border in Pakistan.

One U.S. soldier was killed and two others were wounded in a gun-battle with suspected Taliban fighters near Shkin, 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Urgun, Monday. Two other U.S. soldiers and four militants were killed in a shoot-out near Shkin on August 31.

The U.S. military has described Shkin as "the most evil place in Afghanistan," because more coalition troops have been killed there than in any other part of Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the Canadian deputy commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Friday the deaths of two Canadian soldiers in an explosion in Kabul will not deter foreign peacekeepers from their mission in Afghanistan.

"They (Canadian ISAF troops) have been told that sometimes there's a price to pay for trying to help others," Major General Andrew Leslie told reporters at the Canadian Camp Julien base in west Kabul.

"They were also told that our mission will continue, which is to protect the Afghan transitional authority and the good citizens of Kabul," he said.

The two Canadians were killed Thursday when their vehicle hit an explosive device in a riverbed while on patrol in the hills overlooking Camp Julien. Three other soldiers in a second vehicle were injured.

"As we all know, this is a dangerous mission in a dangerous part of the world but if it weren't dangerous, quite frankly, you wouldn't need ISAF, NATO or Canadian soldiers here," Leslie said.

The latest deaths bring the total peacekeeper fatalities to 82 since ISAF was established in December 2001 to help with security in the Afghan capital after the ousting of the Taliban regime.

Leslie said ISAF patrols were continuing despite the latest deaths.

"It could be argued that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda want us, the international forces of ISAF and NATO, to retreat to our camps or to run away when we suffer such tragedies; that will not happen. That is not an option for ISAF soldiers, for NATO soldiers or for Canadian soldiers," he said.

Leslie said it was not yet known what sort of explosive device it was or whether it was deliberately placed, but results of forensic tests would be known in a few days.

While the Canadian patrol route went through a mined area, Lieutenant Colonel Don Denne said the route had been tested by engineers in a heavily-armored vehicle designed to withstand mine blasts just the day before the deadly explosion.

The patrol was the first to travel the route after Denne, commander of the 3rd Royal Canadian Regiment, authorized its use.

Denne said his troops were coming to terms with the deaths of their comrades and were continuing their peacekeeping work.

"There's a somber feeling right now but it's a reflective feeling where our soldiers are thinking about what happened and coming to grips with the tragedy but I have to tell you, in an old American adage, 'they're back in the saddle' and we've got them out there doing what they're here to do," he said.

The bodies of the dead soldiers are due to be repatriated to Canada Saturday, with one of the more severely injured soldiers due to be medically evacuated as well.

Friday's deaths are the first since NATO took over command of the force in August 2003 and the first since a suicide car bomb attack in June 2003 which killed four German peacekeepers.