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Bomb kills a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-15 23:15
On Tuesday, officials said police scouring the scene of the second suicide
car bombing found six more burned bodies in a ditch and an Afghan man wounded in
the blast died of his wounds. Two people had died Monday — a German peacekeeper
in the initial blast and an Afghan child in the second.
The blasts underscore the challenges facing U.S.-backed President Hamid
Karzai as he struggles to shore up his nation's fledgling democracy. The attacks
came two days after officials released results from legislative elections in
September, showing a win for Karzai's supporters.
Kabul, home to about 3,000 foreigners and patrolled by thousands of NATO
peacekeepers, had been regarded as one of the country's safest places despite a
flurry of kidnappings in the past year.
Senior Afghan officials have spoken in recent months of al-Qaida operatives
entering the country to stage assaults, mostly from neighboring Pakistan. In the
past two months, there have been eight suicide bombings nationwide, the
deadliest in September outside an army training center in Kabul. Previously,
such assaults were far less frequent.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Mullah Hanif, claimed responsibility for
Monday's attacks and warned of more suicide bombings.
"We will fight with every means to defeat the foreign
forces," he said by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location.
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