Hundreds of police swarmed through a southern Afghan village yesterday, searching house-to-house for the assailant who sprayed a US company's helicopter with gunfire, killing the Australian pilot and wounding two passengers.
Police arrested 30 suspected Taliban members and seized five AK-47 assault rifles in Thaloqan village, about 60km southwest of the provincial capital, Kandahar, said a police official, General Salim Khan.
Four foreigners and an Afghan interpreter had traveled in the helicopter on Sunday to inspect the construction of a clinic.
They were about to leave when a man with a Kalashnikov rifle attacked the helicopter and fled, said Khalid Pashtoon, spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province.
The chopper's Australian pilot was killed and an American woman who was helping set up the clinic was seriously wounded, a US Embassy spokesman said on condition of anonymity.
A security guard also suffered serious injuries, the US Embassy said in a statement issued late on Sunday.
Officials said the helicopter belonged to The Louis Berger Group, an engineering firm based in East Orange, New Jersey. The company oversees infrastructure projects in southern Afghanistan.
In Australia, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday that the pilot came from South Australia state, but declined to release his name or other details until the man's relatives were informed of his death.
"It's very sad that he's gone," Downer said. "He was there to help the people of Afghanistan."
Afghan forces immediately began a manhunt in the area, where rebels of Afghanistan's former ruling Taliban regime are active. Pashtoon said the village was home to the Hezb-e-Islami group of renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a key Taliban ally.
After the shooting, about 100 US troops and 100 Afghan forces cordoned off the site as a US military helicopter hoisted away the bullet-riddled chopper.
In a statement, the US military condemned the shooting as a "senseless and violent criminal attack," and called on tribal elders and other locals to hand over the assailant.
A man claiming to speak for the Taliban, Abdul Samad, telephoned reporters in Kabul about six hours after the attack and said the hard-line Islamic militia was responsible.
That claim could not be independently confirmed, and Samad's description of the shooting -- which he said involved eight guerrillas -- was at odds with witness accounts.
A US military quick reaction force evacuated the injured people to a military hospital at Kandahar airfield, said military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Hilferty.
Insurgent attacks in lawless southern and eastern Afghanistan have become commonplace over the past year, despite continuing efforts to hunt down the Taliban and their allies.
US military officials say the rebels have started going after "soft" civilian targets after incurring heavy losses in battles with coalition forces in the middle of last year.
The attacks appear to be aimed at undermining the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai and reconstruction efforts in the country, which is trying to emerge from a quarter-century of war.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
RSS