U.S. soldiers strike wrong target in Afghanistan
* Battle rages in Iraq
EIGHT Afghan soldiers were on Tuesday wounded in an erroneous aerial bombardment by United States (U.S.) forces in central Afghanistan, a Defence Ministry spokesman, Zahir Azimi, said yesterday.
In Iraq, the war to win the peace appears more doomed as the Gulf nation yesterday witnessed its fiercest battle since the hand-over of power in a standoff between the government forces and militants.
Four of the soldiers, all from the newly U.S.-trained Afghan National Army, have returned to duty, Azimi added.
The others were taken to hospital, he said, but gave no word of their condition.
The bombing occurred at the Deh Rawud district of Uruzgan province, scene of a joint operation by Afghan and U.S.-led troops against guerrillas from the ousted Taliban regime.
The U.S. military had earlier said that 10 Taliban fighters were killed in the attack and four Afghan soldiers wounded in the gunbattle with the Taliban.
It had no immediate comment on the Defence Ministry report.
U.S.-led forces have been involved in a series of so-called "friendly fire" incidents since they invaded Afghanistan in the late 2001 in an operation that led to the Taliban's overthrow.
In the worst recent one, last December, American raids in southeastern Afghanistan killed 15 children, drawing stern protests from the Afghans and the United Nations.
Separately, four Afghan police were hurt on Saturday when a bomb placed in a pressure cooker went off outside a Norwegian aid agency in Maimana, the provincial capital of Faryab province, western sources said.
The police were injured while they were checking a first explosion that had damaged the gate of the agency.
Afghans said the blasts were aimed at the agency's office and blamed Taliban remnants and their Islamic allies.
The Taliban have called for a "jihad" or holy war against aid workers, Afghan and foreign forces based in Afghanistan.
Some 900 people have been killed in the country, mostly in the Taliban-led insurgency, since last year.
Afghanistan plans to hold its first direct presidential election in October. People are concerned about security in the run-up to the poll because of the growing violence mostly linked to militants and the slow pace of the disarmament of factional forces.
Meanwhile, Iraq's police and National Guard killed 13 suspected militants in heavy clashes near Baghdad yesterday in one of the fiercest battles the fledgling security forces have faced since the handover of sovereignty.
The police and National Guard were attacked by rebel mortar fire and rocket-propelled grenades as they provided security to U.S. forces conducting raids near the rebellious town of Buhriz, 55 km (35 miles) north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
During the fighting, which lasted around an hour, U.S. warplanes patrolled the skies and U.S. artillery guns opened fire to suppress the insurgents' mortar positions, Major Neal O'Brien of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division said.
It was one of the first major battles between Iraq's security forces and insurgents since the handover of sovereignty on June 28 to an Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, and by far the largest death toll. No Iraqi security forces or U.S. troops were killed.
Reuters television pictures showed buildings blackened by fire and pockmarked with bullet and artillery holes. Inside one house, a family wept over the open coffin of a dead man.
Outside, a number of armed men, their faces wrapped in checked scarves and wearing white robes, fired weapons into the air and shouted "Down with Allawi, down with America."
The fighting came as Iraq's months-long hostage crisis took another turn for the worse -- two Pakistanis working for a Kuwait-based company were feared kidnapped.
Pakistan's Foreign Office said the two, an engineer and a driver believed to be working for the al-Tamimi Group, disappeared on Friday as they drove to Baghdad.
Kausar Parveen, wife of Azad Khan, called for the early release of her 49-year-old husband as their eldest daughter cried for her father at their village in Bangoi, 90 km (55 miles) northeast of the Pakistani capital Islamabad.
"I miss my father very much. I urge the Pakistani government and Iraqi people to help find my father," said Nazia, 21, with tears rolling down her face.
Over the past 15 months, nationals from nearly two dozen countries have been kidnapped in Iraq, sometimes by criminal gangs, but increasingly by militants seeking to put pressure on governments and foreign companies to pull out of the country.
In a step-up in sophistication for militants, a senior Egyptian diplomat was seized as he left a Baghdad mosque on Friday. Most of those kidnapped so far have been drivers.
Abductions have sharply increased since April, when several dozen people were seized in one month. About 60 people have been taken hostage since then, officials say.
Although most have since been freed, at least six have been killed -- four of them by beheading -- and on at least two occasions the hostage-takers' demands have been met, a move that may be fuelling the surge in abductions.
A group calling itself al-Qaeda's arm in Europe said Italy and Australia, both strong allies of the United States, must pull out of Iraq or face attacks.`
