Wednesday, October 28, 2009 KABUL: Gunmen attacked a guest house used by U.N. staff in the Afghan capital of Kabul early Wednesday, killing at least seven people including three U.N. staff, officials said. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility, saying it was meant as an assault on the upcoming presidential election. Heavy gunfire reverberated through the streets shortly after dawn and a large plume of smoke rose over the city following the attack in the Shar-e-Naw district. Kabul police Chief Abdul Rahman said seven people were killed, including some attackers. U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards confirmed that three U.N. staff was among the dead and one was seriously wounded. He said 20 U.N. staff were known to be registered there but he was unsure whether all were there at the time of the attack. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to foreign news agency, saying three militants with suicide vests, grenades and machine guns carried out the assault.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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