Five killed in Afghan attacks

A US soldier and four Afghan police officers were killed in separate rebel attacks, while at least two Afghan civilians were injured by gunfire following the bombing of an American patrol in the east of the country, American and Afghan officials said today.

The soldier was shot when his unit was ambushed in Deh Rahwood, 280 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul. He was evacuated to a nearby base but pronounced dead by doctors.

The soldier’s name was not released pending identification of next of kin. His remains were sent to the US airbase in the southern city of Kandahar, where a memorial service was held today ahead of transportation of the body back to the US, the military said in a statement.

Also on Tuesday, suspected Taliban militants ambushed a convoy carrying the police chief of the Dishu district of Helmand province, in southern Afghanistan, killing four officers and abducting two others, local mayor Mohammed Rahim told The Associated Press. The police chief was unhurt.

Police immobilised one of the assailants’ cars with rockets but failed to prevent their escape in other vehicles. Rahim said it was unclear if the attackers, who he asserted were Taliban guerrillas, were hurt in the exchange.

Meanwhile, a bomb exploded near US military vehicles travelling through Khogyani district of Nangarhar province on Tuesday, Faizan ul-Haq, a spokesman for the provincial government, told AP.

No one was hurt in the explosion, but three civilians were injured when US soldiers shaken by the bombing opened fire on an approaching bus, said ul-Haq, calling the incident a “misunderstanding.”

He said two men and one woman among the passengers were hurt, and that US troops took all three away for treatment.

A witness, Delsoz Khogyani, said the incident happened in a village called Karem Khel.

“It’s a busy road and the coach was coming from Jalalabad with 18 people on board and the Americans fired their guns at it,” Khogyani said.

Lt. Cindy Moore, a US military spokeswoman, disputed the account, saying two civilians were hurt, and that the bullets were fired by militants following two roadside bomb blasts.

“The insurgents were firing on the patrol when they shot the two bystanders,” Moore said. She said the wounded civilians were taken for treatment to the main US base at Bagram, north of the capital.

The death of the American soldier brings to 140 the number of US troops killed in and around Afghanistan since Operation Enduring Freedom began in 2001.

Fighting between coalition forces and the Taliban has increased in recent weeks, perhaps due to improving weather, belying claims by American military leaders who say the insurgency is fading.

Dozens of rebels have been killed in recent clashes across the south and east, but they have also inflicted casualties.

A Romanian soldier died and two others were wounded in a roadside bombing on Sunday near Kandahar, prompting the coalition country to suspend patrolling in Afghanistan. Romania has about 500 peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan.