KUNAR, Afghanistan, May 29, (AFP): Taleban militants captured the administrative headquarters of a remote Afghan district Saturday, officials said, while a suicide bomber blew himself up near a NATO base in Kabul.
Insurgents had surrounded Bargi Matal district in Nuristan province, which borders Pakistan, on Friday and engaged police in a fierce gun battle, Nuristan governor Jamaludin Badr told AFP.
The fate of police officers guarding the administrative compound — which houses government, police and judicial offices — was unclear.
“Since the district headquarters is inside the village in a crowded location we had to make a tactical retreat to avoid casualties to civilians” living in nearby houses, he said.
Afghan authorities often use the term “tactical retreat” when Taleban have overrun police forces and captured districts. An army border police commander in the area, Mohammad Gul Himat, said police responsible for protecting the district had been missing since Friday and it was not clear if they had deserted or been killed or captured.
Only border police had remained to carry on the fight, which lasted all Friday night and Saturday morning, he said.
“Taleban have control over their radio facility which means Taleban have captured the district,” he said.
Nuristan is a mountainous and rural province with difficult terrain.
Bargi Matal is the second district in the province to be captured by the Taleban after Kamdesh — which also shares a border with Pakistan — fell several months ago following the withdrawal of international forces.
NATO and the United States have 130,000 troops fighting the insurgency, with another 20,000 due to be deployed by August, most of them to the volatile south, where the Taleban are concentrating their war.
Under a new US-led counter-insurgency strategy, the foreign forces are pulling back from rural regions to concentrate on populated areas.
Taleban insurgents are waging a campaign against the presence of foreign troops and have promised to target personnel, both foreign and Afghan, and facilities associated with them or the Kabul government.
After a lull of almost three months in Kabul, attacks have escalated, with another on Saturday near a military caterer, when a suicide attacker with explosives strapped to his body blew himself up, causing no casualties.
The explosion took place east of the capital, close to a warehouse and supermarket run by Supreme Food Services, supplier of food to the foreign military, interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP.
A suicide attacker with explosives strapped to his body blew himself up Saturday outside a military caterer in Kabul but caused no casualties, Afghanistan’s interior ministry said.
The explosion took place east of the capital, close to a warehouse and supermarket run by Supreme Food Services, supplier of food to the foreign military, ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP.
“It was suicide attack and the suicide attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body,” he said.
It was not immediately clear what the target of the attack had been, he said, adding the attacker, who was on foot, may have detonated prematurely.
The blast took place at the Kabul end of the road to Bagram air base, a huge NATO installation and until recently the biggest in the country, which is about 45 kms (30 miles) further north.
Taleban insurgents are waging a campaign against the presence of foreign troops — now numbering 130,000 — and have promised to target personnel, both foreign and Afghan, and facilities associated with them.
Two suicide bomb attacks in Kabul earlier this month ended a peaceful stretch in the capital of almost three months.
On May 18, at least 18 people, including women, children and six international troops, were killed in an attack on a NATO convoy in a busy city centre street.
The following day, seven Taleban militants were killed and at least five NATO personnel wounded in clashes at the Bagram base.
Bagram is around 60 kilometres north of central Kabul. International forces also have a prison at the site, opened following the fall of the Taleban regime in late 2001.