SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2003
Blast wounds two Afghan soldiers
REUTERS
KABUL: At least two Afghan government soldiers were wounded on Saturday when a strong blast rocked the office of the governor of southern Helmand province, a spokesman for governor Sher Mohammad Akhundzada said.
The spokesman, Haji Mohammad Wali, said Akhundzada narrowly escaped the blast and had left the office shortly before the explosion ripped through the entrance of his office.
"Two soldiers have been injured and luckily Akhundzada had left for home when it happened," Wali told Reuters by telephone from Helmand. "He was the target and is alive."
Wali did not say what caused the explosion.
He blamed remnants of the ousted Taliban regime and loyalists of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a renegade warlord and leader of the radical party of Hezb-i-Islami, for being behind the blast.
He said no arrests have been made.
Helmand is part of the heartland of the Taliban who were ousted from power by the US-led military strikes in late 2001.
Since then the volatile region has been the scene of various bomb blasts and rocket attacks targetting mostly pro-Afghan government forces and the US-led coalition troops that helped install the government of President Hamid Karzai after the demise of the Taliban.
Earlier this month, three missiles fired by suspected Taliban and Hekmatyar's followers landed outside the province's hydropower plant.
Last month two US servicemen were killed in an ambush with alleged Taliban fugitives.
Afghan officials said Taliban remnants are regrouping in the region and blamed them for a series of recent attacks on US and Afghan government forces.
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