Afghan toll: Karzai lays blames
Canadian officer becomes country's first female combat death
Thursday, May 18, 2006 Posted: 2243 GMT (0643 HKT)
CNN) -- Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has blamed religious schools in neighboring Pakistan for inciting violence in his country, as heavy fighting and a suicide bombing in Afghanistan leaves more than 100 people reported killed.
The dead included a Canadian woman army officer and a U.S. anti-narcotics agent, officials said.
The latest violence in Afghanistan comes as NATO prepares to take over security operations from the U.S.-led coalition, which has been hunting for militants in the region since the 2001 ouster of the al Qaeda-linked Taliban regime.
Karzai said the violence emanated from the border tribal regions of neighboring Pakistan, The Associated Press reported.
These areas are populated by ethnic Pashtuns, who make up the majority of the Taliban militants and are believed to be hiding al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
"We have credible reports that inside Pakistan, in the madrassas, the mullahs and teachers are saying to their students: 'Go to Afghanistan for jihad. Burn the schools and clinics,"' Karzai said, according to AP.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Tasnim Aslam, called the allegations "baseless," AP reported.
"We have denied them repeatedly," she said.
Canadian Captain Nichola Goddard, 26, was killed as fighting raged overnight Wednesday and early Thursday between Taliban militants and Afghan and coalition forces in the country's troubled southwestern provinces.
Goddard is the 16th Canadian killed in Afghanistan and the first Canadian female soldier to die in combat since World War II. She is also the country's first female combat soldier killed in front-line action.
A U.S. military statement said she died in an "intelligence-based combat operation," in the Panjway district of Kandahar province -- which borders Pakistan. The fighting also left 18 Taliban extremists dead.
The statement said three Afghan soldiers were also injured in the fighting.
In a separate operation near Kandahar, another seven Taliban were killed early Thursday, the military said, adding that up to 20 more may have died in air strikes. One coalition soldier was hurt.
Reports of more fighting in neighboring Helmand province claimed heavy casualties. The Associated Press put estimates of the total dead among Afghan and coaltion soldiers, Taliban fighters and suicide bombers at up to 104.
Also Thursday, a suicide car bomber rammed into two vehicles in the country's main western city of Herat, killing an American working on a counter-narcotics project and injuring two other people.
U.S. embassy spokesman Chris Harris said the contractor, whose name was not released, was working on a police training program to combat the country's booming trade in deadly drugs.
Eight-hour battle
Meanwhile on Wednesday night, Canada narrowly voted to extend its combat mission in the country for two years, saying the fight against terrorism still had a long way to go.
In Helmand attacks, according to AP, several hundred Taliban militants assaulted a police and government headquarters at Musa Qala, a district in Helmand, 150 kilometers (95 miles) north of Kandahar.
The eight-hour battle killed nine police and wounded five, while the bodies of 14 militants were left behind, AP quoted deputy governor Amir Mohammed Akhunzaba saying.
An Interior Ministry spokesman put the casualty figure at 13 police and 40 militants, AP said.
Goddard, one of 2,300 Canadian troops in Afghanistan, died in a separate clash as coalition troops hunted for rebels about 50 kilometers west of Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold where attacks have been increasing in recent months.
"During the sweeps, Afghan and Canadian troops came into contact with insurgents, those who daily threaten the lives and the livelihood of the local Afghan people," Canadian Brigadier General David Fraser said in a statement.
"Captain Goddard's death was the price today of ensuring that tens of thousands of men, women and children of Afghanistan can have hope that their future will be brighter," he added.
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