 |
| Afghan police patrol in Kabul, 17 Aug 2008 |
Afghan authorities have deployed 7,000 police officers in Kabul to prevent attacks on ceremonies marking Afghanistan's Independence Day.
Officials say the security operation for Monday's celebration is the largest in the capital since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. They say the measures aim to create an environment of trust and disrupt potential threats.
In other developments, NATO says its troops accidentally killed four Afghan civilians and wounded three others Saturday in the southern province of Helmand.
It says NATO troops fired rockets at a compound where militants were seen preparing an attack. NATO says its forces did not know civilians were inside.
The British government says its troops were involved in the deaths. It promised to investigate and expressed sympathy to the victims.
Meanwhile, an Afghan official, Gulab Shah Alikheil, says Afghan forces killed 32 Taliban fighters Sunday in the southern province of Zabul after the rebels attacked a NATO supply convoy.
At least five security guards also died in the fighting on a main highway linking Afghanistan's southern and western regions with Kabul. Officials said Sunday that Afghan forces killed another seven militants in a separate battle in Zabul.
In other violence, a roadside bomb killed 10 Afghan policemen Saturday as they were on patrol in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.
E-mail This Article
Print Version
