Kabul (dpa) - Governor Mohammed Daoud of restive Helmand province in southern Afghanistan escaped an assassination attempt unharmed Tuesday, but the police officers protecting him suffered a number of casualties in the suicide bombing, a provincial spokesman said.

The number and nature of their injuries were not immediately known, but the bomber was killed, spokesman Haji Mohayoddin said.

The attack occurred in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.

Afghanistan has seen more than 100 suicide bombings this year, a record number.

In the eastern province of Khost, four suspected militants and an Afghan girl were killed Tuesday when Afghan and coalition troops returned fire during an arrest raid, the US-led coalition said.

The raid targeted a compound near the village of Darnami. Upon its arrival, the Afghan-coalition force requested that the occupants surrender but they began firing instead, the coalition said.

As a result, four men in the compound and a 13-year-old girl were killed and an 8-year-old girl was wounded, it said. The injured girl was taken to a coalition hospital.

Colonel Thomas Collins, a coalition spokesman, said the coalition had information indicating that the compound was a refuge for terrorists.

No Afghan or coalition forces suffered casualties in the operation, the coalition said.

More than 3,900 people, including 1,000 civilians, have been killed in militant-related incidents this year in Afghanistan, four times greater than in 2005. // © 2006 DPA


Publication date: 12 December 2006   

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