U.S. forces in Afghanistan still suffer periodic attacks

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, November 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A U.S. Special Forces soldier was killed and another injured after their vehicle was hit by an improvised bomb in northeast Afghanistan where U.S. troops are conducting a major offensive against “militants”, according to a U.S. military spokesman Saturday, November 15.

One Special Operation Forces soldier died Friday of wounds he received in the explosion near the U.S. military base of Kunar, provincial capital Asadabad, Colonel Rodney Davis told reporters at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Another coalition Special Operation Forces soldier was wounded in the same incident," he said without providing further details. The name of the dead soldier was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Kunar governor Sayed Fazail Akbar told AFP three U.S. soldiers were killed Friday when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in Manoguy district of Pech valley in Nuristan.

The U.S. military has yet to comment on the reported incident.

The Asadabad base, 190 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of Kabul, has been repeatedly targeted by suspected Taliban fighters and their allies whom Afghan officials claim are regrouping across the border in nearby Pakistan.

Davis did not say whether Friday's blast was linked to the ongoing Operation Mountain Resolve offensive against “militants” in Kunar and adjacent Nuristan province.

Hundreds of U.S. troops backed by warplanes were Saturday continuing to hunt Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters and their allies in Kunar and remote Nuristan, which borders Pakistan's Chitral district, AFP reported.

At least one militant has been killed during gun battles in the offensive, which was launched last week against suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters and supporters of renegade former premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

The U.S. military has described the operation as "the most challenging that we have undertaken" in Afghanistan due to the rugged terrain with mountains up to 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) and onset of the bitter Afghan winter.

With the latest U.S. death, at least 39 coalition soldiers have been killed by hostile action in Afghanistan since the October 2001 start of operations to topple the Taliban regime.

Two Romanian soldiers died earlier this week after a man in military uniform opened fire on their convoy Tuesday near the southern city of Kandahar. One died on the spot and the second died of his wounds Friday.

Southern and eastern Afghanistan have been hard-hit by a resurgence of the Taliban, who have increasingly targeted aid workers as well as troops.

Factional Fighting

As another sign stability is yet a far-reached dream in Afghanistan, two militiamen were killed and another wounded in overnight fighting in northern Afghanistan, according to rival faction commanders Saturday.

Two men from the mainly Uzbek Junbish faction were killed in fighting in Chemtal district, 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of the main northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, said Juma Khan Hamdar, commander of the Junbish-dominated 8th corps.

"The fighting started at 10:00 pm (1830 GMT) and lasted for three hours," he said.

Khan claimed the fighting was between Junbish men and their mainly Tajik Jamiat rivals.

General Abdul Sabor of the Jamiat-dominated 7th corps said two Junbish were killed but said the fighting was between villagers of Sayed Sharaf and Junbish militiamen.

Sabor said the villagers fought with the Junbish men because the faction had captured their village during fighting last month.

British military spokesman Captain Tom Barker confirmed to AFP that fighting had taken place but said it was between Junbish militiamen and the people of Sayed Sharaf village.

Barker said a British army patrol was investigating but he had no details of any casualties yet.

Some 80 British army soldiers, mostly Gurkhas, are based in Mazar-i-Sharif as the backbone of a provincial reconstruction team helping with security sector reforms in the north, which has been plagued by factional fighting.

Fighting between Junbish supporters of General Abdul Rashid Dostam and the Jamiat faction of his Tajik rival General Atta Mohammad has claimed dozens of lives this year.

Dostam, who is a deputy defense minister, and Mohammad last week assured a visiting U.N. Security Council delegation that they supported President Hamid Karzai, even as their militiamen continued to fight.

The rival 7th and 8th corps are due to be combined into a new 15th corps under a government plan to end factional fighting in the north.