Six soldiers of the NATO-led International Security Assistance
Force (ISAF) were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan
on Sunday, an ISAF statement said.
A vehicle carrying the six soldiers hit an explosive device, and
was totally damaged, the statement said.
Another ISAF solider was injured in the explosion and is
receiving medical attention at an ISAF medical facility, it
added.
No local civilians were injured in this incident, according to
the statement.
The statement did not give a more detailed location of the
incident.
In accordance with NATO policy, ISAF also does not release the
casualties' nationality prior to the relevant national authority
doing so.
No one has claimed responsibility, but Taliban militants have
carried out similar attacks frequently.
About 4,500 ISAF and 1,000 Afghan soldiers are carrying out a
major offensive dubbed Operation Achilles in northern Helmand in
southern Afghanistan, a stronghold of Taliban militants.
Some 36,000 ISAF soldiers are being deployed in this country to
fight Taliban and other anti-government insurgents.
Due to rising Taliban-linked insurgency, over 700 persons,
mostly Taliban militants, have been killed in Afghanistan this
year.
Also on Sunday, a spokesman for Taliban commander Mullah
Dadullah said Taliban fighters killed the kidnapped Afghan
journalist Ajmal Naqshbandi as the Afghan government did not meet
the group's demand of the release of two Taliban prisoners.
Naqshbandi's body was found in the volatile southern Helmand
province, while it was not clear where he was killed.
Naqshbandi was abducted in Helmand together with an Italian
journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo and their driver on March 4.
Afghan and foreign journalists in this country have been urging
Afghan authorities to do anything possible to get Naqshbandi freed,
but apparently no effective measures have been carried out by the
government.
The driver was beheaded, while Mastrogiacomo was released after
five Taliban prisoners, including some important figures, were
freed by Afghan authorities.
The Italian hostage deal has been severely criticized by some
Western countries, notably the United States and Britain, and even
by Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta, who said it would
provoke a kidnapping spree by the Taliban.
On March 27, the Taliban abducted a five-member Afghan medical
team in the southern Kandahar province, and has insisted they would
be released only after a number of Taliban prisoners are freed.
(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2007)
