November 12, 2007
Attacks in Afghanistan Kill 3 Policemen and a Soldier
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 11 (AP) -- Attacks against United States and coalition forces and the Afghan police continued unabated throughout the country, killing three policemen and a soldier in separate explosions and raids, officials said Sunday.
The soldier died after a battle on Saturday about 40 miles northeast of Kabul, the capital, the coalition said Sunday. It did not disclose the soldier's nationality.
In Helmand Province, Afghanistan's center for opium poppy production, a suicide bomber on foot detonated his explosives near a NATO convoy, killing three bystanders, said the Helmand police chief, Muhammad Hussain Andiwal.
Elsewhere in the country, the Afghan police came under attack by a land-mine blast, an ambush and an assault on a checkpoint. Three policemen died, one was missing and three were wounded in the scattered attacks.
The latest violence came after the United States military announced Saturday that six soldiers were killed Friday in eastern Nuristan Province, in eastern Afghanistan -- the most lethal attack in a year that has been the deadliest for American forces since the 2001 invasion. Three Afghan soldiers were also killed in the attack.
Insurgent attacks have risen sharply over the last two years, and analysts say the counterinsurgency battle that American and NATO forces now face will take a decade or more to win.
More than 5,800 people, mostly militants, have died in insurgency-related violence this year, a record, based on figures from Western and Afghan officials.
Insurgents have carried out more than 130 suicide attacks in 2007.