New attacks as Afghanistan prepares for royal return

Two new attacks were reported today on US-led forces in Afghanistan - part of an upsurge in fighting now warmer weather has made it easier for fighters to move around the mountainous terrain.

But plans to bring the 87-year-old former king home this week were progressing despite the ongoing conflict.

In the most recent incident, two explosions occurred last night at an airfield used by coalition forces in the southeastern city of Khost on the Pakistan border, said Major Bryan Hilferty, a US military spokesman.

The blasts came near the spot where two rocket-propelled grenades exploded on Saturday night, he said.

Hilferty also said a joint US-Afghan patrol came under fire on Saturday night, and five al-Qaida or Taliban attackers were killed when the coalition troops called in an AC-130 gunship air strike.

It was the second attack on Saturday on a joint US-Afghan patrol, he said.

In the earlier attack, which occurred before dawn on Saturday, US officials said they believed several attackers were killed - again by an AC-130 called in to drive off the raiders.

There were no US or coalition fatalities in the attacks, which broke a lull of several weeks in the fighting between US and Afghan troops and fighters from the Taliban or Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida movement.

However, Afghan authorities said three Afghans were wounded in the attack on Saturday night at the Khost airstrip.

US officials have refused to specify where the attacks against patrols occurred but they were also believed to have taken place in or near Khost province, thought to be one of the last major al-Qaida and Taliban strongholds.

The area is marked by mountains which rise to 12,000ft and narrow passes which offer escape rotes into Pakistan.

‘‘They do not fight much in winter because it is very cold and hard to get through passes, hard to survive,’’ Hilferty said of the al-Qaida and Taliban forces. ‘‘Historically, wars have picked up in intensity in the spring.’’

Hilferty said US commanders had ‘‘always expected there would be more attacks now than there would be in January or February.’’

Despite the incidents, Afghan authorities said plans were underway for the return this week of the country’s exiled former king, Mohammad Zaher Shah, who has lived in Italy since he was thrown out in a 1973 coup.

Interim leader Hamid Karzai was expected to go to Rome tomorrow to escort Zaher Shah back home - either on Wednesday or Thursday.

Although there are no plans to restore the monarchy, the former king is expected to convene a grand council, or loya jirga, to choose a new Afghan government. Local officials across the country have already begun the selection process for delegates to the loya jirga, which is scheduled for June.

Using barbed wire and concrete cylinders, British-led peacekeepers today blocked off three roads surrounding the Kabul house where the king is expected to live. Four armoured personnel carriers belonging to the international security force were parked near the building.

Peacekeepers and local Afghan security forces staged drills in preparation for the former monarch’s arrival. A German peacekeeper outside the residence gave orders to about two dozen Afghan police as part of the exercise.

‘‘If anybody shoots at you, even your brother, you must fire back,’’ he told the men through a translator.

In one drill, a German peacekeeper stopped a Humvee and pointed his automatic rifle at the driver. In another, a peacekeeper lay on the ground with his hands behind his back as if handcuffed.