Afghan insurgents wound Dane in attack on Nato forces

Taliban insurgents attacked a Danish camp in southern Afghanistan today, seriously wounding one Nato soldier, in the third assault on Denmark’s contingent since it deployed to the volatile region last week.

A Taliban ambush in the same province yesterday killed three British soldiers and seriously wounded a fourth.

They were the first Nato deaths since Monday when the alliance assumed military control of southern Afghanistan from a US-led coalition.

The Danish soldier injured in the attack on the camp in the remote district of Musa Qala, in Helmand province, was transferred to a hospital in the city of Kandahar, the Danish Army Operational Command said in a statement. No further details were immediately available.

A raid by Afghan forces backed by coalition aircraft killed 18 Taliban militants in an insurgent hide-out in Helmand late yesterday, local police chief Ghulam Rasool said.

An Afghan policeman was killed during the battle, and four Taliban were wounded, he said.

The raid took place in the village of Habibullah near the city of Garmser, which Taliban militants seized and held for several days last month before US-led coalition troops and Afghan forces wrested it back.

Police confiscated eight AK-47s, four rocket-propelled grenades and four motorcycles, Rasool said.

Afghan forces killed 23 insurgents on Sunday in attacks on two Taliban hide-outs near Garmser.

Afghanistan is being wracked by its deadliest outbreak of violence since US-led forces toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001 for hosting Osama bin Laden. More than 900 people, mainly militants, have been killed since May.

A spokesman for the US-led coalition, Colonel Tom Collins, said pamphlets from Taliban leader Mullah Omar urging Afghans to rise up against the US and its allies had recently been distributed.

He offered no further details.

The pamphlets claimed Western forces were “out to destroy Muslims” and expressed pride in suicide bombers, even those who kill innocent civilians, Collins said.

“We have intelligence reports… There’s no doubt it’s from Omar,” he said. He didn’t say whether the intelligence indicated the fugitive militia leader was in the country. Afghan officials have claimed Omar is hiding in Pakistan, which Islamabad denies.

Earlier today, an explosion destroyed an Afghan Finance Ministry car in Kabul, killing the driver and wounding a passenger and a bystander, officials said.

Finance Ministry spokesman Aziz Shams rejected speculation that the attack was a suicide bombing, saying the vehicle was part of a two-car ministry convoy and driven by a ”trusted” employee. Another Finance Ministry employee was riding in the car, Shams added.

It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion, which left a small crater in the road and shattered the windows of nearby houses. British and American soldiers cordoned off the scene as an Afghan bomb-disposal unit inspected the damaged car.

Nato spokesman Major Luke Knittig said initial police reports indicated a suicide attacker had detonated his bomb-rigged car prematurely after police tried to stop it.