Afghan blast kills 2 U.S. troops
As casualties outpace 2009, general warns more ahead
KABUL — A roadside bomb killed two U.S. service members in southern Afghanistan on Saturday as the country’s top NATO commander acknowledgedan increased risk to foreign troops will accompany an influx of reinforcements aimed at routing the Taliban.
The deaths brought to at least 22 the number of American members killed so far this month — compared with only 14 in January last year. A mild winter has brought no respite to the fighting, which traditionally eases in cold months.
The south is the Taliban heartland and is expected to be a major focus of fighting as the U.S. and NATO allies send 37,000 additional troops to turn the tide of the war.
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“The end state of the mission is to protect the population and isolate the insurgency in a way where it doesn’t constitute a threat to the Afghan government,” Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said Friday during a visit to the western command. “This will not happen in a short period or in an easy way. It’s realistic to expect an increase of risk to coalition forces.”
Also Saturday, militants kidnapped a district police chief, Jamtullah Khan, and two other officers on a nighttime foot patrol near theeastern border with Pakistan — the latest in a series of attacks against Afghan officials.
Gen. Khalilullah Zaiyie said reinforcements had been sent to help with a search for the three men, who were seized in Kunar province just after 1 a.m.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, but Zaiyie blamed Taliban militants who are active in the area.
It occurred a day after the governor of Wardak province escaped an assassination attempt when his convoy struck a roadside bomb, killing four Afghan soldiers and wounding another. Gov. Halim Fidai, who was unharmed, was on his way to inspect a school after meeting elders in Jagatu district.
Two armed men, including a local Taliban commander, were arrested as they tried to flee the scene, according to the governor’s spokesman Shahidullah Shahid, who also was in the convoy.
In other violence, militants hiding among demonstrators fired on police Saturday, sparking a gunbattle in the middle of a protest over the deaths of four men in a NATO-Afghan raid, officials said. At least two people were wounded.
NATO and Afghan police have said the four killed late Wednesday were insurgents, but villagers in Ghazni province insist they were civilians.
Protesters have taken to the streets for three straight days and have blocked traffic on a highway that links Kabul and Kandahar.
29 killed in clashes, suicide attack in Pakistan
Militants ambushed Pakistani security forces at checkpoints in two regions close to the Afghan border Saturday, sparking gunbattles that left 22 insurgents and two troops dead, officials said. Elsewhere in the northwest, a suicide bomber killed a police officer and three passers-by, part of a relentless wave of violence by al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents also blamed for attacks on U.S. and NATO troops across the frontier in Afghanistan.
NATION
Plane diverts after man tries to open door
DENVER — An airplane flying from Washington, D.C., to Las Vegas was diverted Saturday to Denver International Airport after a passenger tried to open a door on the plane while it was in flight.
Airport spokesman Jeff Green said United Flight 223 was diverted to Denver at 5:10 p.m. Saturday, and police who met the plane at the gate took the passenger into custody.
Green said the police interviewed the passenger Saturday night but did not know if the man would be charged.
United Airlines and the Denver police department did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press.
Oil spilled at Texas port
PORT ARTHUR, Texas — A U.S. Coast Guard official said as much as 450,000 gallons of crude oil may have spilled in a southeast Texas port when two vessels collided, but it’s unclear whether that much actually leaked from the damaged tank.
No one was injured in the collision Saturday morning, but part of the port of Port Arthur was closed and some nearby residents evacuated.
Chief backs 911 caller in Ohio roadside rape case
TOLEDO, Ohio — An Ohio police chief is defending a driver who called 911 but didn’t do more to stop a woman from being raped along a street in broad daylight.
Toledo Police Chief Mike Navarre says the witness did the right thing and could have risked her own safety if she tried to intervene. In an interview with The Blade published Saturday, the driver said she feels guilty and hasn’t been able to sleep well since the Tuesday attack.
On the 911 call, the driver describes a man removing the pants from a woman lying on a sidewalk. Police say several other people called 911, but they weren’t sure if it was a fight or something else.
Police have charged a 15-year-old with rape and robbery.
WORLD
Saudis find bodies of 20 soldiers on Yemen border
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi forces have recovered the bodies of 20 soldiers who had been reported missing in fierce battles with Yemeni rebels on the border, a defense official said Saturday, raising the Saudi death toll in the conflict to 133.
Prince Khaled bin Sultan told reporters the bodies were found after troops cleared the rebels out of areas around Dokhan mountain, a strategic high point in the rugged border region. He said six soldiers are still missing.
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Saudi forces entered the conflict with a sweeping offensive against the rebels after they crossed the border Nov. 5 and killed two Saudi border guards.
The rebels, from the Zaydi sect of Shiite Islam, have been battling Yemen’s government since June 2004 in a conflict set off by claims that their communities in northern Yemen are neglected.
Putin calls for rights
MOSCOW — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Saturday ordered officials in the North Caucasus to ensure what he called the “normal work” of human rights groups operating in the volatile region.
Rights activists in and around Chechnya have been attacked and even killed in recent years in incidents Kremlin critics blame on local authorities who have little patience for their work. The activists investigate accusations of rights abuses by police and the personal security forces of the regions’ leaders.
Convictions have been almost nonexistent in such attacks, and critics have blamed Putin for an atmosphere of impunity.
Putin arrived in the southern city of Pyatigorsk to chair a meeting of the leaders of the provinces that suffer the most from violence linked to Islamist separatists.
N. Korea warns South
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has warned it will consider any pre-emptive strike by South Korea as a declaration of war.
The North’s military also said Sunday it will take prompt military action against any South Korean attempt to violate the North’s sovereignty. The warning carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency is the latest salvo in a war of words, waged even as the rival nations show signs of stepping up cooperation.
The warning came after the South Korean defense minister said the South should launch a pre-emptive strike if there is a clear indication the country is preparing a nuclear attack.
THE QUOTE
“Proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources.”
— Pope Benedict XVI, urging priests to use cutting-edge technologies to express themselves and lead their communities.