War News for Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Afghan election commission delays release of full results to allow recounts, audits

Fraud allegations delay Afghan election result

Reported security incidents
#1: Eight people, including four civilians, were killed as Taliban insurgents launched two attacks in southern Afghan province of Kandahar on Tuesday, sources said on Wednesday. In one attack, four police were killed and one was wounded when the militants attacked a security checkpoint in Ghorak district, the provincial government said in a statement. Three policemen were missing following the attack in the district, northwest of the provincial capital Kandahar city, 450 km south of Kabul.

#2: In addition, four civilians were killed when the Taliban carried out an attack on police forces during a poppy eradication campaign in Maiwand district Tuesday, according to the statement. The statement also said three militants were killed in a premature blast and an engagement with the security forces in Kandahar on Tuesday.

#3: Meanwhile, six people, including five policemen and an ambulance driver, were killed in a separate attack on a police patrol on the outskirts of the regional capital of Peshawar overnight. Three others were wounded when militants opened fire. Senior police officer Shafiullah Khan said unknown people had planted a bomb on a motorcycle and parked it near police headquarters in Peshawar. “The bomb went off when a police van carrying 13 policemen for duty was passing through the spot. Three persons were killed and 33 were wounded,” he said. “It seems the police van was the target of the attack.”

#4: In one attack, two male civilians were killed when a vehicle they were riding set off an improvised explosive device (IED) in Pusht Rod area of western Farah province early Tuesday morning, a provincial official told Xinhua.

#5: Elsewhere, a soldier was killed in similar attack on Tuesday, the Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement earlier in the day.

#6: Nineteen militants have been killed in army operations since early Tuesday, Afghan Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

#7: At least five people including a security man were injured in a blast near a vehicle of paramilitary troops in Pakistan’s southwest Chaman district on Tuesday, local officials said. Muhammad Ashraf, a senior police officer, said that the paramilitary Frontier Corps’ vehicle was targeted by the explosion in Kandahari Bazaar area of Chaman, Balochistan province.