Fourteen civilians were killed in a bomb blast in southern Afghanistan yesterday as the government said it believed around 25 were killed in fighting between NATO and Taliban three days ago.
The UN meanwhile expressed concern about the rising civilian death toll in Afghanistan, where around 40,000 NATO troops and thousands more Afghan troops are fighting a virulent insurgency led by the extremist Taliban.
The 14 -- mostly elderly people and children -- were travelling in a minibus that was struck by a bomb in the southern Uruzgan Province, a provincial government official said.
The bus was hit just outside the provincial capital Tirin Kot, spokesman Abdul Qayom Qayom said.
"Fourteen civilians, mostly elders and children, were killed in the blast and three were wounded," he said.
The blast was caused by a mine that had been planted in the road, interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told reporters.
It was unclear who was behind the attack, he said.
Officials were also trying to establish how many civilians were killed in clashes between NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Taliban insurgents in Kandahar Province.
The interior ministry in Kabul said around 60 people were killed in the battles late on Tuesday, and more than half were insurgents.
Bashary said later about 25 of the dead appeared to have been civilians, according to preliminary investigations.
An ISAF spokesman in Kandahar said it could confirm 12 civilians were killed in the skirmishes, which included a bombing raid. ISAF has already said it killed 48 insurgents.
ISAF has already said it deeply regretted any civilian deaths in the encounters on Tuesday, the first of which was sparked when up to 40 men attacked a military base in the Panjwayi district. The area -- about 35km west of Kandahar city -- was the focus of Operation Medusa, a major anti-Taliban action last month.
A government-appointed commission found this month that 53 civilians were killed during Operation Medusa, even though ISAF and government officials urged civilians to leave the area before the operation began.
The UN mission in Afghanistan said late on Thursday it was concerned about reports of new civilian deaths.
"The United Nations has always made clear that the safety and welfare of civilians must always come first and any civilian casualties are unacceptable, without exception," it said in a statement.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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