8 US men perish in Afghan suicide attack

Thursday, December 31, 2009
KABUL: At least 8 American civilian workers were killed on Wednesday in a suicide bomb attack on a US military base, officials said.

Pentagon spokeswoman Lt Col Almarah Belk said the eight died when an attacker detonated a vest packed with explosives on Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost province -- a key Taliban stronghold.

"Eight Americans have been killed in an attack on RC-East," a US embassy official said, referring to the military region of eastern Afghanistan.

"No US and no ISAF military personnel were killed or injured" in the incident, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) added.

Suicide attacks are a hallmark of the Taliban, who are waging a major insurgency to topple the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The number of foreign civilians under government contracts in Afghanistan is increasing, with the strategy to defeat the Taliban placing more emphasis on development and aid.

The US said last month it had doubled the number of civilian experts working in Afghanistan and was "on track" to meet its goal of nearly 1,000 by the New Year. Many are to work in provincial military bases alongside military reconstruction teams.

The attack came just over two months after Taliban suicide gunmen stormed a Kabul hostel in a dawn attack and killed five UN workers.

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BAGHDAD: At least 42 people were killed and nearly 100 wounded in a spate of bomb attacks near the restive northern Iraqi city of Mosul and in the capital Baghdad on Monday, police said. In the deadliest single attack, two booby-trapped lorries exploded before dawn in the village of Khaznah, east of Mosul, leaving 25 people dead and 70 others wounded. Thirty-five houses were destroyed in the village, which is home to members of the tiny Shabak community, a sect of Kurdish origin. In Baghdad, two car bombs went off as day labourers were gathering in the early morning hours looking for jobs.The first bomb exploded at Hay al-Amel, in the west of the capital, killing nine people and injuring 46. The second bomb attack in Shurta Arbaa in the north of the city killed seven people and wounded 35 others.

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