AFGHANISTAN: Fresh violence ahead of September elections rocked Afghanistan yesterday after fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar called on supporters to unite in their war on the government and US-led foreign forces.
The US military said heavy fighting in central Afghanistan killed 13 people, including a second US soldier in two days.
The latest blow to US forces, already suffering their bloodiest year in Afghanistan since ousting the Taliban from power in 2001, came when a US patrol was attacked by small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars in a village in Uruzgan province.
A US statement said an Afghan soldier was also killed, along with 11 guerrillas, while three US troops and an Afghan soldier were wounded in the heavy fighting west of Deh Rawud.
In an earlier incident in the capital, Kabul, three Afghan policemen were critically wounded when a bomb exploded at their post on a road leading to the airport.
Another US soldier was killed and one hurt in the southern province of Helmand on Sunday, while six US troops were in stable condition after their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb that day in Kunar province.
The latest casualties brought US combat deaths in Afghanistan this year to 37. Nineteen of that total were killed in the eastern province of Kunar last month, the worst-ever losses for the US in a combat incident in Afghanistan.
The fresh violence ahead of September 18th elections came after a message was delivered by Omar via field radio to the Taliban's leadership council, a Taliban spokesman said. The message was one of only a few from Omar issued by the guerrillas to the media.
"Unite, and do not disagree, continue your jihad and victory will be yours," said a recording of the message, purporting to come from Omar, handed to Reuters in the southern city of Kandahar.
Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said the leadership council, which had numbered 10 men, now had eight new members. Omar told guerrillas not to harass people while waging war. "Carry out your works quietly," he said, without elaborating.
His whereabouts have remained unknown since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders responsible for 9/11.