Afghan Bus, U.S. Military Vehicle Collide

KABUL, Afghanistan – A bus and a U.S. military vehicle collided Saturday in southern Afghanistan, killing 10 Afghan civilians, police and defense officials said.

A U.S. military spokesman in Kabul, Lt. Col. Jerry O’Hara, said he had not heard of a crash involving a U.S. military vehicle, but there was one involving an Afghan army truck in the district. It was not clear if they were the same incident.

The collision occurred on the highway from the southern city of Kandahar to the Pakistani border in the district of Spin Boldak, district police chief Abdul Wasai said. He said no American casualties were reported.

U.S. troops had cordoned off the area, Wasai said, adding the cause of the crash was not known and an investigation had been launched.

Gen. Raziq Khan, the Afghan defense ministry chief in Spin Boldak, gave the same details about the crash as the police commander and said it was a “very bad accident.”