Wednesday, September 09, 2009 KABUL: A suicide car bomber killed three Afghan civilians in Afghanistan's capital Tuesday, while four U.S. soldiers died during fighting in a northern province. An Afghan police official said the attacker in Kabul struck a NATO convoy outside the military base at the international airport. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast, which wounded another six Afghan civilians and three international soldiers - two Americans and a Belgian. Also Tuesday, the U.S. military said four U.S. troops were killed while fighting insurgents in northeastern Kunar province. The French news agency said 10 Afghan soldiers also died in the clash.Meanwhile, NATO acknowledged for the first time that Afghan civilians were killed in last Friday's air strike on two fuel tankers in northern Kunduz province and ordered a full investigation.The commander of NATO's force in Afghanistan, U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, named a Canadian officer, Major General C.S. Sullivan, to lead the inquiry.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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