Home>News Center>World | ||
Two GIs killed in Afghanistan
A bomb attack in southern Afghanistan killed two American soldiers and wounded three others, the U.S. military said Saturday.
The attack happened Thursday in Uruzgan province, northwest of Deh Rawood, where a U.S. military base is located. Maj. Mark McCann, a U.S. military spokesman in Kabul, said in a brief statement that an improvised explosive device — a homemade bomb — was to blame.
Another U.S. official confirmed the casualties were American soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division.
About 18,000 U.S. soldiers make up the vast majority of the coalition forces hunting Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in southern and eastern Afghanistan.
Uruzgan Gov. Jan Mohammed Khan reported the attack on Friday.
He said that a remote-controlled mine detonated under an American jeep on patrol in Kishi area of the province's Charcheno district on Thursday afternoon. He said that just one U.S. soldier was wounded.
In response, a U.S. helicopter opened fire on the suspected attacker as he fled on a motorbike, killing him, the governor said.
McCann did not comment on the reported firing by the helicopter.
The bomb attack happened less than a week after Afghanistan held landmark presidential elections which passed off largely peacefully despite threats of attacks by Taliban-led rebels who had vowed to sabotage the vote. |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||