KABUL — A Taliban ambush on a NATO convoy in western Afghanistan left nine insurgents and a policeman dead, a police official said today. A U.S. service member died in the south of the country, the U.S. military said.
The clash in western Herat province, a relatively calm area, highlighted the volatile situation in much of Afghanistan ahead of the Aug. 20 presidential elections.
Insurgents launched the attack Thursday with a roadside bomb against a vehicle of a private security firm escorting the NATO convoy, injuring three Afghan security guards, Herat police chief Gen. Esmatullah Alizai said.
Alizai said nine insurgents and one police officer died in the gunbattle that followed.
To the south of Herat, a Taliban unit also ambushed a convoy of electoral material in Farah province, a local official said. Insurgents killed four Afghan soldiers in the gunbattle but the ballots and other voting material were retrieved, Farah Gov. Roh ul-Amin said.
He said insurgents also fired a rocket-propelled grenade into a damaged NATO fuel tanker truck nearby, seriously injuring 11 villagers who were trying to recover some of the fuel.
In the volatile south of the country, a U.S. service member died today of wounds suffered the day before in a gunbattle, U.S. officials said. Another American was killed in the clash.
The deaths brought to 42 the number of Americans killed in Afghanistan in July — the bloodiest month for U.S. and international forces during the eight-year Afghan war.
In Geneva, the United Nations issued a report today stating that the number of civilians killed in conflict in Afghanistan has jumped 24 percent so far this year, with bombings by insurgent and airstrikes by international forces the biggest single killers.
The report by the U.N. assistance mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, says the total death toll reached 1,013 killed civilians in the first half of 20009 — 24 percent higher than in the same period in 2008, and 48 percent higher than in 2007.
The U.N. tally is higher than an Associated Press count of civilian deaths based on reports from Afghan and international officials. The AP count shows 453 civilians have been killed in insurgent attacks this year, and 199 civilians died from attacks by Afghan or international forces.
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