Afghan Elections to Go Ahead Despite Widespread Violence, Presidential Spo

[soup]

Afghan Elections to Go Ahead Despite Widespread Violence, Presidential Spokesman Says

By Daniel Cooney Associated Press Writer
Published: Jun 28, 2005


KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Landmark legislative elections in Afghanistan will be held as planned in September despite an upsurge in rebel violence that has raised fears the polls could be threatened, the president's spokesman said Tuesday.

President Hamid Karzai's spokesman said that the elections "will be successful."

"I would like to emphasize that Afghanistan will not go back ... the progress we have made can never be reversed regardless of how hard the terrorists and the enemies of Afghanistan try," spokesman Jawed Ludin told reporters.

His comments come after three months of unprecedented fighting that has killed a reported 465 suspected insurgents, 29 U.S. troops, 38 Afghan police and soldiers and 125 civilians.
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB09NL1IAE.html

[Oversea Visitor]

1. Did you guys see this

29 US troops???

[soup]

2. 16 in the helicopter crash in April.

According to U.S. Department of Defense statistics, at least 122 American soldiers had died before Wednesday's incident in and around Afghanistan since Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led war on terrorism, began after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Accidents have proven almost as deadly as attacks from Taliban-led insurgents, including a string of helicopter crashes and explosions caused by mines and munitions left over from the country's long wars.

The previous worst incident in Afghanistan was an accidental explosion at an arms dump in Ghazni province that killed eight American soldiers in January 2004.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/07/terror/main686160_page2.shtml

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I was surprised by the number, too. There's so little attention being paid to what's going on in Afghanistan.

http://icasualties.org/oef/Afghanistan.aspx

[maddezmom]

3. Bombs kill senior Afghan policeman and four others

KABUL (Reuters) - Bombs killed a top policeman and four other people in Afghanistan on Tuesday and rockets struck near a U.N. election office, but the government said Taliban guerrillas would not derail parliamentary polls in September.


"The (guerrilla) challenges are very feeble," government spokesman Jawed Ludin told a news briefing, vowing the elections would be even more successful than last October's presidential ballot won by U.S.-backed Hamid Karzai.

The police chief of Sarkano district in the eastern province of Kunar was killed along with two of his sons when a roadside bomb blew up their vehicle south of the provincial capital Asadabad, officials said. Seven police were wounded.

Several rockets landed near a U.N.-Afghan election commission office in Asadabad, but caused no casualties or damage.

Another roadside bomb killed two police officers and wounded two others in the Naish district of the southwestern province of Kandahar, police said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050628/wl_nm/afghan_dc;_