Afghan troops free kidnapped UN workers

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Troops stormed a Taliban compound Monday and freed five Afghan U.N. staffers who had been held hostage for a month, an operation that left two soldiers and several insurgents dead, an Afghan general said.

The head of Afghan army troops in the north, Gen. Murad Ali Murad, said his troops surrounded the compound in northern Baghlan province and freed the workers who being held in the basement. He said the freed workers appeared healthy.

U.N. officials in Kabul confirmed that their staffers had been freed, but did not provide further details. They had been missing since April 15 when their vehicles were hijacked in Baghlan which has seen increasing Taliban activity over the past year.

Murad said two of his soldiers were killed in the fighting, along with "tens of insurgents."

Kidnappings have becoming an increasing problem in Afghanistan amid prevailing lawlessness and as the insurgency has strengthened, even as thousands of new U.S. forces have arrived to combat the Taliban.

On Sunday, militants shot and killed a prominent Muslim cleric, Rahman Gul. His brother and a relative also died in the ambush as the three returned to their homes in the Chapa Dara district of the eastern province of Kunar, the Interior Ministry and provincial police chief Gen. Khalilullah Zaiyie said.

In recent days, Gul, the chief of the district clerical council, had stressed the importance of "peace and stability" across Afghanistan. No one claimed responsibility, but insurgents are known to target those who oppose their extreme, militant interpretation of Islam.

The shooting capped a weekend of roadside bombings, assassination, militant attacks and suicide blasts across the country as part of an expected springtime spike in insurgent violence.

On Monday, Italy's Foreign Ministry said two Italian soldiers in the NATO mission were killed by a roadside bomb while riding in a convoy near the western city of Herat. Two other soldiers were wounded.

The U.S. said one of its service members died in a bomb attack in the south on Monday, and NATO said another of its service members died in a separate bombing in the west. No other details were immediately available.

At least 26 NATO troops, including 16 U.S. service members, have been killed so far this month across Afghanistan, many in the south where NATO troops are moving in as part of a stepped-up security operation in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement.

Southern Afghanistan has seen the fiercest fighting in recent weeks.

Late Sunday in Kandahar, a suicide bomber detonated his cache of explosives near the gate of an Afghan Border Police residence. Kandahar Police Chief Sher Mohammed Zazai said at least three people were wounded in the attack in the northeast part of the city. The spokesman for the Kandahar governor, however, said at least four border police were injured.

Television images of the scene showed a police sport utility vehicle with its hood and passenger side door bashed in, and a blown-out hole in the wall of the police compound.

Governor's spokesman Zelmai Ayubi said two other suicide attackers entered the police compound and were challenged by police. The Interior Ministry said they detonated their explosives, killing only themselves.

Earlier Sunday, two militants on a motorbike opened fire in Kandahar city on a car of an Afghan intelligence official on his way to work, Zazai said. The intelligence official's driver was killed.
MyWay