Afghanistan's Bloodiest Day In Eight Months
Qalat, capital of Zabul province, was the site of a suicide bomb deployed this afternoon. The explosion left six dead, including Anne Smedinghoff, a foreign service officer with the US State Department. Secretary of State John Kerry denounced the death of Smedinghoff as “despicable.” (Sky News) She had been working in the country as part of a Provincial Reconstruction Team, intended to play a humanitarian role in the country’s development. (NPR)
In a separate incident, 20 people were killed in an attack that took place in Eastern Afghanistan. (Afghanistan International Security Assistance Force) The dead included one American citizen. (Washington Post)
An airstrike by NATO targeting Taliban forces left 11 civilians dead in Kabul, it was announced yesterday. (Los Angeles Times) According to a statement from Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry, the strike killed six organizing members of the fundamentalist group, though this report is denied by reports from other groups within the country. (BBC Asia)
The process by which American troops are slated to be scaled back and eventually removed from Afghanistan entirely has been at no point entirely amiable. These incidents of violence indicate that the road ahead will be no less rocky.
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