Bomb Attacks Hit Afghanistan, 9 Dead

Posted August 7th, 2012 at 8:25 am (UTC-5)
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A roadside bomb killed nine people Tuesday near the Afghan capital and a bomber rammed his truck into a NATO base in eastern Afghanistan.

In the first attack, a remote-controlled blast hit a bus traveling across a bridge west of Kabul. Nine civilians were killed and at least five others were wounded. The local police chief says the person who planted the bomb has been arrested.

Authorities also say a bomber detonated a truck full of explosives outside a NATO base in Pul-i-Alam, the capital of Logar province, wounding at least 11 civilians. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

NATO said the attack “failed to cause any significant damage to the base, but did result in the severe injury of a number of innocent Afghan civilians.”

The coalition condemned Tuesday's “inhumane” violence, as examples of the “insurgency's destructive, vicious disregard for the Afghan people.”

Afghan President Hamid Karzai also condemned the attacks, saying terrorists who target innocent civilians during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan are neither Muslims nor Afghans, and that they will “achieve nothing but public abhorrence.”

Also Tuesday, France said one of its soldiers was killed and another wounded in a firefight with insurgents in Kapisa province. Since 2001, 88 French soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.

The coalition said another service member was killed in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan. No other details were released.

And NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen appointed Maurits Jochems as NATO's next senior civilian representative to Afghanistan. Jochems will succeed Simon Gass, who will return to Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office after serving as representative for 18 months.