80 Afghan schoolgirls sick in week; poison feared

April 25, 2010 - 8:33am

By RAHIM FAIEZ Associated Press Writer

KABUL (AP) -

More than 80 schoolgirls have fallen ill in three cases of mass sickness over the past week in northern Afghanistan.

The latest case occurred Sunday when 13 girls became sick at school, Kunduz provincial spokesman Mahbobullah Sayedi said. Another 47 complained of dizziness and nausea on Saturday, and 23 got sick last Wednesday. All complained of a strange smell in class before they fell ill.

None of the illnesses have been serious, and medical officials were still investigating the exact cause. The Health Ministry in Kunduz said blood samples were inconclusive and were being sent to Kabul for further testing.

Meanwhile, the Taliban said they shot down a helicopter early Sunday in western Farah province. Spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed the attack in a call to The Associated Press but did not provide further details.

NATO said a helicopter belonging to a civilian contractor was forced to make an emergency landing in Farah, but said initial reports of injuries, NATO said.

Also Sunday, a suicide bomber attacked private security guards while they were at a bazaar in southeastern Afghanistan, killing four Afghans and wounding 12, the government said.

Two of the dead and five of the wounded worked for the U.S. Protection and Investigations security firm, an Interior Ministry statement said. The other victims were civilians.

The Houston-based company could not immediately be reached for comment.

The suicide attacker, who was on foot, targeted the guards at a bazaar in Sahjoy district of Zabul province, the ministry said.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, witnesses said hundreds of people blocked a main road in Logar province, west of Kabul, and burned several trucks to protest what they said were civilian deaths in NATO operations. They gathered hours after NATO said coalition troops killed several insurgents and captured a Taliban sub-commander.

"The people are very angry, they are saying these people killed are innocent civilians," provincial spokesman Din Mohammad Darwesh told The Associated Press.

Civilian deaths caused by U.S. and other international forces are highly sensitive in Afghanistan. Public outrage over such deaths prompted the top commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal last year to tighten the rules on the use of airstrikes and other weaponry if civilians are at risk.

Last week, hundreds of residents in Logar protested another NATO operation, saying they were not convinced the victims were actually Taliban fighters.

Logar is a strategic province because it controls southern land routes into Kabul, allowing weapons, explosives and fighters to move into the capital.

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Angry protesters torch 30 logistical vehicles of invaders in Logar

Sunday, 25 April 2010 10:54 By Zabihullah Mujahid

LOGAR, Apr. 25 -

More than 30 logistical vehicles of U.S-NATO consisting of oil tankers and container-filled trucks were torched Sunday morning (April 25) by angry civilians in a protest against the martyrdom of 4 non-combatant civilians by Americans yesterday night near the provincial capital of Logar province.

According to the details, the American forces invaded civilian homes in the night hours of  Saturday, martyring four non-combative civilians and taking 2 others as captives in Kamal Khel village near the provincial capital of this province.

There have been thousands of protesters chanting anti-American, anti-NATO, and anti-Karzai administration slogans, who attacked the logistical convoy on the Kabul-Gardez road which has been remained blocked off by the protesters in the Pol-e-Alam city, capital of Lagar province.

Two tanks of U.S-NATO invaders destroyed in Ghazni

Sunday, 25 April 2010 10:08

By Zabihullah Mujahid

GHAZNI, Apr. 25 -

Two of the invaders' military tanks were eliminated in  Mujahideen's rocket strikes Sunday (April 25) as a patrol convoy backed up by the U.S fighters planes came under an attack from Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate in the province's Andar district, according to the report from Ghazni province. No losses of life and injuries have been reported so far.

District center comes under attack in Badakhshan province

Sunday, 25 April 2010 10:07

By Zabihullah Mujahid

BADKHSHA, Apr. 25 -

About two Afghan policemen were killed and three others injured Saturday (April 25) as the district headquarter got attacked by Mujahideen in  Warduj district of Badakhshan province.

The operation lasted about an hour, in which one military vehicle was destroyed in the attack.

Blast hits logistical convoy of U.S-NATO in Zabul

Sunday, 25 April 2010 10:04

By Qari Yousuf Ahmadi

 ZABUL, Apr. 25 -

An early morning blast tore though one of the military traveling in logistical convoy on Kabul-Kandahar highway, in the city of Kalat, the capital of Zabul province, on Sunday, Apr. 25, 2010.

According to the report, the vehicle got destroyed in the bomb attack killing all the soldiers on board, while the highway was blacked off shortly after the bombing to transport the dead from the area.

Mujahideen eliminate 2 tanks, 8 NATO soldiers killed in Ghazni

Saturday, 24 April 2010 17:36

By Qari Yousuf Ahmadi

 Ghazni, Apr. 24 -

Two of the NATO tanks were struck by RPG'S and left wrecked in an ambush attack by Mujahideen, killing 8  foreign soldiers, likely to be Polish, in Muqur district of Ghazin province, on Saturday noon.

The report add no Mujahideen have been harmed in the operation lasting about an hour.

22 U.S-NATO and Afghan soldiers killed in Ghazni

By Zabihullah Mujahid GHAZNI, April. 25, 2010 -

Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate, in an encounter with a group of Afghan police who were on patrol mission in Khwajah Omari district of Ghazni province, killed at least 3 Policemen in addition to wounding 4 more yesterday (April 24), Mujahideen officials said.

Separately, more than 15 Afghan and U.S-NATO soldiers were killed in a powerful blast in Gailan district of Ghazni province on Friday(April 23).

Locals said the dead and wounded have been evacuated by the U.S helicopter following the bomb attack. Last Updated ( Sunday, 25 April 2010 08:53 )