3 troops killed in Afghan insider attack
KABUL, Afghanistan – An Afghan wearing a security forces uniform turned his weapon against foreign troops Saturday, killing three in eastern Afghanistan, NATO and Afghan officials said, in another apparent attack by a member of the Afghan forces against their international allies.
The shooting took place in Gardez, capital of eastern Paktia province, Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, an Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, said. The area, near the border with Pakistan, has been a front line in fighting with the Taliban and other militants.
The attack took place inside a base of the Afghan army in the city, according to a security official in Gardez, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give details while the incident was still under investigation.
All foreign troops in Paktia are believed to be Americans, but the NATO statement on the incident did not reveal the nationalities of the slain service members.
Afghan insider attack kills three troops
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan freed the Afghan Taliban’s former deputy leader on Saturday after years of detention in a move that many officials in Islamabad and Kabul hope will aid Afghanistan’s struggling peace process.
But others doubt Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar will do much good, and the United States, which opposed his release, is worried he could return to the battlefield. That could give the Taliban in Afghanistan a boost at a time when the U.S. is drawing down its troops and increasingly relying on Afghan forces to fight insurgents.
Kabul has demanded Islamabad free Baradar ever since he was arrested in a joint raid in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in 2010 after holding secret peace talks with the Afghan government. Pakistan resisted for years, exacerbating already tense relations with neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s change of heart came amid a renewed push to help strike a peace deal between the Taliban and the Afghan government before the U.S. withdraws most of its combat troops by 2014. Pakistan is increasingly worried that further instability in Afghanistan could make it more difficult to fight Islamic militants at home.
Iraqi Kurds vote for regional assembly
IRBIL, Iraq – Voters in Iraq’s Kurdish north cast ballots Saturday in local parliamentary elections, with smaller parties hoping to challenge the self-rule region’s longtime political establishment.
The election for the Kurdistan Regional Government’s 111-seat legislature comes as Iraq’s Kurds look to bolster their autonomy while insulating their increasingly prosperous enclave from the growing violence roiling the rest of Iraq and neighboring Syria.
Security was tight for the vote. Approaches to the regional capital Irbil and other major cities were closed, and voters were searched before being allowed into polling centers.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of regional President Massoud Barzani are looking to maintain their dominance in the face of challenges by smaller parties, including opposition group known as Gorran, or Change, that had a surprisingly strong showing in the last vote in 2009.
Associated Press
