French soldier killed in Afghanistan, Canadian hurt

By Ismail Sameem

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Taliban rebels killed a
French soldier in a clash in southern Afghanistan on Saturday
and a roadside bomb killed an Afghan intelligence agent and
four other Afghans.

A Canadian soldier from the U.S.-led foreign force was also
seriously wounded in a clash in the Shahwali Kot district of
Kandahar, Canadian spokesman Lieutenant Mark MacIntyre said.

U.S. spokesman Colonel Jim Yonts said at least one Taliban
guerrilla was killed in that clash and two were killed in the
one in which the French soldier died, elsewhere in the volatile
province of Kandahar.

The wounded Canadian would be evacuated to a U.S. military
hospital at Landstuhl in Germany, the spokesman said.

Saturday’s bloodshed came as U.S. President George W. Bush
was in neighboring Pakistan discussing ways to improve
cooperation in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said the rebels
planted the bomb which killed the Afghans in Helmand province,
neighboring Kandahar, as part of a campaign to overthrow the
U.S.-backed government. He said nine people were killed.

The blast in Nadali district of Helmand killed Mohammad Ali
Borak, a local official of the National Security
Administration, said Asadullah Sherzad, head of the agency in
the province.

“It was a remote-controlled bomb,” Sherzad told Reuters,
adding that an Afghan electrician who had been traveling in the
same vehicle as Borak and his three bodyguards were also
killed.

LATEST CANADIAN CASUALTY

The attack was the latest in a spate on insurgent violence
to hit Helmand. On Friday, Taliban gunmen killed the chief
government official in Sangin district, hours after police
killed eight guerrillas and captured 10 in a two-hour battle.

The Canadian casualty was just the latest suffered by their
2,300-strong contingent in Kandahar this week.

On Friday, five Canadian soldiers were hurt, one seriously,
in a suspected suicide car bombing that followed a wave of such
attacks in recent months that have killed dozens of people.

On Thursday, a Canadian soldier was killed and seven hurt
when their vehicle overturned. Police said it was an accident
and brought Canadian fatalities in Afghanistan to at least 10
since 2001.

Bush made a brief stop in Afghanistan on Wednesday and
ahead of his visit the Afghan government repeatedly complained
Taliban guerrillas were able to operate from Pakistan — the
main backer of the militants before joining the U.S.-led war on
terrorism.

U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001 for refusing
to give up Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders
responsible for the September 11 attacks.

Bin Laden remains at large and an intensified insurgency
has claimed more than 1,500 lives since the start of last year.

The violence in Helmand comes as British troops set up
bases as part of an expanded NATO deployment aimed at allowing
Washington to cut its troop numbers in Afghanistan.

In Islamabad, Bush said he was convinced of Pakistani
President Pervez Musharraf’s commitment to the war on
terrorism, but stressed more cooperation was needed to win to
defeat terrorist, some of whom were “lodged” in Pakistan.