AIP: Three Afghan police dead, five wounded by mine in Herat; details on attack on Herat airport

October 4, 2007

Text of report by private Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency

Herat, 4 October: Three policemen have been killed and five others wounded in an explosion in a police vehicle. Confirming this incident to Afghan Islamic Press [AIP], Governor of Badghis Province Mohammad Ashraf said: “A remote-controlled mine explosion hit a police vehicle in the Bala Morghab District yesterday, killing three policemen and wounding five others.”

However, earlier Mr Jamaloddin, a local Taleban commander, told a correspondent of AIP that the Taleban attacked a checkpoint in the Sabzak area between Herat and Badghis last night, killing six people. And the Taleban took a vehicle with them.

The commander of Zone No 4 in Herat Province, Mr Rahmatollah Safy, told AIP that five rockets were fired at the airport in Herat last night, causing no damage and casualties. One person called Hekmatollah in Herat who purports to be the Taleban’s local commander, told AIP the rocket attack had damaged the airport runway and planes are unable to land and take off.

[Description of Source: Peshawar Afghan Islamic Press in Pashto -- Peshawar-based agency, staffed by Afghans. The agency used to have good contacts with Taliban leadership; however, since the fall of the Taliban regime, it now describes itself as independent and self-financing. OSC IAP20071004950044 0944 GMT 04 Oct 07]

Radio Sahar: Pro-government religious official in Herat survives attempt on life

October 4, 2007

Excerpt from report by Afghan female-orientated community Radio Sahar on 4 October

[Presenter] Mawlawi Abdurrahman Moradi, deputy head of the Herat Council of Religious Scholars, has survived an attempt on his life. It is said that he and one of his relatives came under an armed attack as they were leaving a mosque. Doctors at the Herat Regional Hospital said he had a bullet wound to the leg. Here is Hami Azad with details:

[Correspondent] Herat Security Commander Mohammad Joma Adil says unidentified gunmen attacked Mawlawi Abdurrahman Moradi as he and one of his relatives were returning by motorbike after attending a mosque in Herat 1st city ward. He said that they have launched investigations into the incident and that a number of suspects have been identified so far. Mr Moradi is the deputy head of Herat Council of Religious Scholars, who was injured in the incident.

[Adil] As they were returning home by motorbike after prayers, they came under fire and as a result, the esteemed mawlawi was injured in the leg. One of his relatives who was riding the motorbike was also slightly wounded.

[Correspondent] Eye-witnesses say the unidentified assailants were driving a car.

[Passage omitted: Eyewitness describes incident]

Meanwhile, the Herat Council of Religious Scholars condemned the attack and its chief, Mawlawi Khodadad Saleh, described the assailants as enemies of peace and security in Afghanistan. According to Herat Security Commander, the reason for the bid to assassinate Mawlawi Moradi was his support for the Afghan government.

[Description of Source: Herat Radio Sahar in Dari -- local independent radio station in Herat run mainly by women. OSC IAP20071004950061 1230 GMT 04 Oct 07]

AFP: Taliban attack Herat airport; separate attack wounds head of Herat religious council

October 4, 2007

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) — Afghan and NATO forces killed 20 Taliban attackers overnight while authorities separately retook a remote district captured by rebels a day earlier, police said Thursday.

Afghan officials also said that Taliban militants involved in a growing insurgency fired rockets at the airport in the western city of Herat, causing no damage, and separately blew up a police vehicle, killing a policeman.

The deaths happened in the southern province of Kandahar late Wednesday when troops responded to an attack by rebel fighters, provincial police chief Sayed Aqa Saqib told AFP.

“Twenty Taliban were killed by the joint forces. The militants left three of their bodies at the battlefield,” Saqib said. Afghan and NATO forces escaped the hour-long battle with no casualties, he said.

About 300 Afghan and US security forces meanwhile took back Ajristan district in the province of Ghazni, about 200 kilometres (124 miles) southwest of Kabul, after it was captured when hundreds of Taliban stormed it with artillery and rocket fire on Wednesday.

“Taliban fled the area,” provincial police chief Alishah Ahmadzai said. “There have been some casualties on the Taliban side but we have no exact figure.”

Two policemen were killed Wednesday as the force retreated under attack, and district government buildings were destroyed. Another policeman had been seized by the rebels, the police chief said.

Two elders who had links with Taliban and had allegedly helped the rebels to take the control of the district had been arrested, he said.

The Taliban militia, which has stepped up its bloody campaign against the government in the past two years, has captured several remote districts over recent months. Most have been retaken fairly easily.

Also overnight, militants fired five rockets into Herat airport where NATO troops have an important military base, a border police official told AFP.

Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack and said the rockets landed on the runway. Provincial authorities denied any damage to the airport.

In a separate incident late Wednesday, militants shot and wounded a deputy head of the Herat religious council who had previously spoken against the Taliban, the head of the council, Mawlawi Khudaidad, told AFP.

On Thursday meanwhile a roadside bomb destroyed a police vehicle on patrol in the western province of Badghis, killing one police and wounding another five, provincial police chief Mohammad Ashraf Nasiri told AFP.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

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