10 Afghan civilian, one soldier killed in attacks (Roundup)

Aug 31, 2007, 14:41 GMT

Kabul - At least 10 Afghan civilians were killed in missile attacks against a US military base in eastern province of Kunar, while an Afghan soldier was killed and three others wounded in a suicide attack against German forces in Kabul, officials said Friday.

The 10 civilians including women and children were killed and five wounded when militants fired more than 10 rockets at a US base in Ghawkay district, provincial governor Shalizai Didar told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

A coalition military spokesman confirmed Friday morning's attack, but did not have any information on civilian casualties.

Didar said a police unit was sent to track down the militants at the site where the missiles were fired.

Meanwhile, the radical Islamic group Taliban claimed responsibility Friday for the suicide bomb attack that targeted a German military convoy at Kabul airport earlier in the day.

Taliban spokesman Zabehullah Mujahid told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that 'one of our hero mujahideen carried out the attack on the German troops when the enemy vehicle was driving through the area of Khawaja Rawash near the Kabul airport.'

He claimed that eight German soldiers were killed, a claim in stark contrast to Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi's earlier statement that one Afghan soldier was killed and three other soldiers and two civilians were wounded.

The German Defence Ministry in Berlin spoke of one German soldier being slightly wounded.

The Belgian Defence Ministry confirmed on Friday morning that four of its soldiers had been lightly injured in the attack. All four, part of a deployment of 245 tasked to secure Kabul airport, had been able to contact their families in Belgium, a statement on the ministry's website said.

The attacker aimed the car packed with explosives at a convoy of two vehicles carrying German soldiers, missed and detonated near the military gate to the airport where Afghan soldiers were waiting, a spokesman for the German forces at Camp Warehouse confirmed Friday.

The five German soldiers in the convoy were largely untouched, though there was vehicular damage, said the spokesman.

The bomber did not enter the actual airport area, said the chief of the Kabul police investigation department, Alishah Pakpiwal.

In a separate incident, insurgents shot and damaged a US-led coalition helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade in the eastern province of Nuristan, the US military and Taliban sources said Friday.

The helicopter was hit Wednesday in Kamdish district, the US military said in a statement, adding, 'The helicopter sustained minor damage. The aircraft was able to land safely and none of the crew was hurt in the incident.'

The Taliban rebels took responsibility in a statement posted on their website, and said they shot down the helicopter while it was patrolling the area in the district, but said that there was no immediate information on the number of casualties.

In a separate clash, Afghan and coalition forces killed more than a dozen insurgents near Rigay village in Musa Qalah district of southern Helmand, after the militants attacked a combined patrol in the area, the US military said in another statement.

'The combined force was on a combat patrol when an unknown number of insurgents attacked from multiple compounds and trenches using small-arms fire, 82mm mortars and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades),' the statement said.

It said the troops repelled the attack and called in an airstrike that claimed killed an unspecified number of Taliban insurgents.

No Afghan, coalition forces or civilians were reported injured or killed during the fighting, it added.

Since spring, fighting has killed more than 4,000 mostly Taliban- led insurgents in Afghanistan but also left hundreds of Afghan and international troops dead.