Soldiers die as Afghan peace takes continue

Five Afghan police and three Nato service members including one Briton have died in separate roadside bomb blasts, officials said today.

Provincial Police Chief Sher Mohammed Zazai said today the policemen were riding in a vehicle that struck a bomb in the Khakrez district of Kandahar province.

Zelmai Ayubi, spokesman for the provincial governor of Kandahar, said a bomb planted in a pushcart exploded in Kandahar injuring 10 people, including civilians and Afghan policemen.

Nato said an American service member died in a roadside bomb attack in northern Afghanistan. Poland’s defence department said one Polish soldier was killed and eight others were wounded in an explosion in Ghazni province.

A third Nato service member killed in southern Afghanistan was confirmed as British.

Meanwhile, fuelling momentum for a political solution to the nearly nine-year-old Afghan war, a UN committee is reviewing whether certain people could be removed from a blacklist that freezes assets and limits travel of key Taliban and al Qaida figures, the top UN representative said today.

Delegates to a national conference, or peace jirga, held this month in Kabul called on the government and its international partners to remove some of the 137 people from the list – a long-standing demand of the Taliban.

“De-listing was one of the clear messages coming from the peace jirga,” Staffan de Mistura, the top UN representative in Afghanistan, told reporters. “The UN is listening to what the peace jirga is saying. Some of the people in the list may not be alive anymore. The list may be completely outdated.”

A committee is expected to complete its review at the end of the month and give its recommendations to the UN Security Council, which will make the final decision on whether to remove any names off the list. The US, Britain and France, who still have troops posted there, wield veto power on the council and would have to agree to changes on the list.

“If we want the peace jirga to produce results, we need to keep momentum,” Mr de Mistura said.

“The aim is not war, it is reconciliation. And reconciliation ... can only take place through constructive inclusion.”

The peace jirga also supported the release of some Taliban prisoners in US custody at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and at Bagram Air Field north of the Afghan capital. As a goodwill gesture to the militants, Afghan President Hamid Karzai promised to make the detainee issue a priority and de Mistura said the UN supported efforts to release prisoners detained without legal basis.

Peace overtures to the insurgents come at a time when the US and its partners are ramping up military operations, especially in the Taliban’s southern heartland. The Taliban also announced their own offensive last month aimed at forcing foreign troops from the country.

That has led to a sharp rise in bloodshed. So far this month, 39 coalition troops have been killed in Afghanistan, including 27 Americans.