Official: Bomb hits Afghan minibus, killing 14

[December 16, 2010]  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A roadside bomb destroyed a crowded minibus Thursday in western Afghanistan, killing 14 passengers who were all members of an extended family, a provincial official said.

Violence has been on the rise across much of Afghanistan, even as the White House released a generally positive review of its military strategy here.

Rafi Behrozan, the spokesman for the Herat governor, said four others were wounded in the powerful morning blast in the Kushk Kuhna district of Herat province. Two additional bombs were found nearby on the same road but were defused by Afghan policemen, he added.

"The explosion was very strong and the vehicle was destroyed. The majority of these aboard were killed," Behrozan said.

The U.S. government review released Thursday said that President Barack Obama's expansion of the war in Afghanistan has eroded the power of the al-Qaida terrorists who attacked America in 2001 and the resurgent Taliban militants who gave them cover.

But the picture on the ground is more complicated.

There have been numerous successes with rounding up those seen as ringleaders, but violence and insecurity have also increased in areas outside of the Taliban heartland in the south.

The international Red Cross said Wednesday that it saw the country deteriorating into a much more violent state overall, with a proliferation of armed groups that made it difficult for the organization to get aid out.

In the east on Thursday, a fuel tanker caught fire in Nangarhar province and officials said they believed a bomb had gone off inside or near the truck, sparking the blaze in Behsud district. Two suspects have been arrested, said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, spokesman for the Nangarhar government. No one was injured, he said.

Also Thursday, the Afghan Defense Ministry said a coalition airstrike the previous day killed four Afghan soldiers after they were mistaken for militants.

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the soldiers had left their base in Helmand's Musa Qala district on Wednesday night when they came under fire from NATO planes.

A NATO statement said the strike was called in by a joint Afghan-NATO patrol that was attacked by insurgents.

"A coalition aircraft positively identified the insurgent firing position and conducted an airstrike," NATO said.

The coalition said it had received reports that four Afghan soldiers were killed and said it was investigating.

There have been other incidents this year in which NATO troops mistakenly killed Afghan forces.

In August, three Afghan policemen were killed in northern Jowzjan province in an airstrike aimed at insurgents who were attacking them. In July, a botched NATO airstrike killed six Afghan soldiers in Ghazni province in the east. The coalition said the Afghan army unit gave the wrong location to international forces.

In the latest arrests, Afghan forces took into custody the Taliban shadow governor of eastern Khost province on Wednesday, along with four other militants, said Gen. Nahim Momam, a provincial intelligence chief for Kandahar province. The five were arrested in Kandahar, he said.

[Associated Press; By RAHIM FAIEZ]

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