Blast at Afghan government office kills two

By Abdul Khaliq

LASHKAR GAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A blast destroyed an
Afghan government office in the southern province of Helmand on
Monday killing at least two people, a witness said.

In a separate incident, U.S.-led forces said they had
killed four suspected al Qaeda fighters during a raid in Khost
province, once a stronghold of Osama bin Laden.

Police said the cause of Monday’s blast opposite the police
headquarters in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, was
not clear.

Two bodies were taken away and bystanders said they thought
more people were under the rubble of the building that included
a justice department office.

Foreign troops are engaged in a big offensive against
militants in the south, where a NATO peacekeeping force is due
to take over from the U.S.-led coalition force at the end of
the month.

Coalition forces said in a statement that in addition to
the deaths of the four suspected al Qaeda members, another
three people were captured during the raid in Khost province,
east of Kabul. Residents in the town told Reuters one of those
killed was a cleric.

TALIBAN COMMANDER

After days of some of the heaviest fighting since the fall
of the Taliban in 2001, coalition forces said they had
destroyed a “safe house” of a known Taliban commander in Sangin
district in Helmand province.

The U.S. military said the raid was conducted on Sunday
night, but they did not name the commander who was targeted.

A British military spokesman said fighting in Nawzad town,
also in Helmand province and the scene of almost daily
firefights or bombing raids this month, had eased on Monday
after forces captured a hospital occupied by militants.

Also on Monday, three Afghan soldiers were killed when a
roadside bomb hit their convoy in Girishk district of Helmand,
an army officer said.

Taliban fighters had also taken control in a thinly
populated southern district of Helmand, a member of parliament
said.

The Taliban had occupied Garmser district in Helmand
overnight without any resistance from police, said the
politician, Sher Mohammad Akhundzada.

The Taliban and their drug-gang allies have for years
operated unmolested across Helmand, Afghanistan’s main
opium-growing province.

British and other NATO troops are now moving into lawless
areas across the south, hoping to establish security but they
are meeting a much more ferocious Taliban than expected.

The country’s defense minister said in an interview
published on Monday that Afghan intelligence had learned the
Taliban’s command and control structure was fragmenting due to
heavy losses and many mid-ranking commanders were fleeing to
Pakistan.

“I think that in the next two or three months there will be
some major changes,” General Abdul Rahim Wardak told the
Financial Times.

Wardak said Taliban militants had stepped up attacks to
undermine public support for the Afghan mission in NATO
countries.

(Additional reporting Jeremy Laurence, Kamal Sadat and
Mirwais Afghan)