The New Nation - Internet Edition

More than 40 killed in Afghan violence

AP, Kabul

Afghan and NATO forces killed more than 40 insurgents in a joint air and ground battle in southern Afghanistan, a security official said Sunday. Separately, two soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition died after hitting a roadside bomb.

Troops seized dozens of weapons - including rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns - after Saturday's battle in Dihrawud, a district in Uruzgan province, the Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement. It said many militants were killed, including a commander, but provided no figures.

An official at the ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details about the battle, put the number of dead at more than 40 .

Also Saturday, U.S.-led coalition troops hit a roadside bomb in Kandahar province as they were conducting a security patrol with Afghan troops, the coalition said in a statement. Two soldiers died, it said, without releasing their nationalities.

Elsewhere in the south, a mine killed two soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, a U.S. military statement said.

"Coalition forces, along with Afghan National Security Forces, were conducting a security patrol in the Zharmi District, when their vehicle struck a mine placed on a frequently traveled road," said the statement, issued late on Saturday.

Taliban insurgents planted hundreds of mines and roadside bombs in 2007, contributing to a record year of violence that killed more than 6,000 people, nearly 2,000 of them civilians.

More than 200 foreign troops were killed in Afghanistan in 2007 while nearly 30 troops from the U.S.-led coalition and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have been killed since so far this year.

Taliban rebels are mainly active in southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan that share long borders with neighboring Pakistan. Afghan officials have repeatedly claim that insurgents are trained, equipped, funded and have safe havens in other side of the border.

Afghan and NATO forces both say they need more troops to fight off a revived Taliban insurgency. The United States is pressing its NATO allies to come up with more troops and trainers for Afghan forces at a summit in early April.

AFP report adds: A bomb blew up a military vehicle in Afghanistan and killed two soldiers with the US-led coalition, officials said Saturday, also reporting a wave of violence that left eight other people dead.

The soldiers, whose nationalities were not released, were killed Friday when their vehicle was struck by a mine planted on a busy road in the southern province of Kandahar, the coalition said. The attack was similar to scores carried out by Taliban militants active in the area but there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The force includes about 18,500 US soldiers and about 1,500 of other nationalities.

More than 30 international soldiers -- in the coalition and a separate NATO-led force -- have been killed in Afghanistan this year, most of them in hostile incidents related to a deadly Taliban insurgency.

The Afghan interior ministry announced meanwhile that security forces had killed three Taliban "commanders" and two of their bodyguards in operations in the southern province of Uruzgan late last week.

It did not identify the "commanders", a label which could cover insurgents with just a handful of men operating under them. Satellite telephones and weapons were also seized, it said.

Mortars and suicide attacks kill 10 in Iraq

AFP, Baghdad

Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone was hit by two waves of mortar attacks on Sunday that caused no casualties but sent panicked US embassy staff scurrying into bunkers, officials and witnesses said.

In the restive northern city of Mosul, meanwhile, a suicide bomber crashed an explosives-laden truck into an Iraqi army base, sparking a blast that killed 10 soldiers and wounded 30 people, mostly soldiers, an officer said.

The attacks follow a relative lull in the violence in the past few days and come days after the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of March 20, 2003, with millions of Iraqis still battling daily chaos and rampant bloodshed.

Black smoke was seen rising from the Green Zone, the seat of the Iraqi government and the US embassy also known as the International Zone, immediately after the 6:30 am (0330 GMT) and 10:30 am (0730 GMT) attacks.

US attack helicopters were also seen circling above the sprawling complex, which once served as Saddam Hussein's presidential compound.

US embassy officials said there were no immediate reports of casualties while witnesses said some buildings had suffered minor damage and some fires.

An employee in the Green Zone, Mohammed al-Dulaimi, who witnessed the second attack, said eight mortar rounds fell near the US embassy complex and two a little distance away in a residential area.

"They caused slight damage and one sparked a fire," Dulaimi told AFP.

A US embassy spokesman confirmed both attacks.

"I heard the blasts. We are checking damage. We have no reports of casualties," the spokesman said.

He was unable to say whether the mortar rounds landed near the embassy. "All I can say is that they fell in the International Zone."

An embassy employee, who would not be named, said staff dashed for the embassy's bunker after both attacks.

"The first attack woke us up and people went rushing to the bunker. It was very frightening. The blasts were very close. Some people were in the showers and arrived with towels around them," she told AFP.

"Others were nonchalant and carried on as if nothing had happened. This was the worst attack since last summer, when some buildings in the embassy compound were hit by mortars."

US embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo told AFP after the first attack that an initial assessment did not indicate any "death or major casualties."

China accuses Dalai Lama of taking Olympics 'hostage’

Reuters, Beijing

China has accused the Dalai Lama of plotting "terror" in Tibet and colluding with Uighur separatists in Xinjiang as it escalates a security and propaganda drive to stifle anti-Chinese unrest ahead of the Olympics.

Anti-government protests by Buddhist monks erupted in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, from March 10 and five days later anti-Chinese rioting shook the city, killing a policeman and 18 innocent civilians, burnt or hacked to death, authorities have said. Protests then flared in nearby provinces with large ethnic Tibetan populations, leaving at least several more people dead.

In Sichuan, Gansu and other troubled provinces, troops continued conspicuously patrolling the streets of Tibetan towns, with schools and Buddhist monasteries under tight guard.

Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, has criticised the violence and said he wants talks with China to negotiate autonomy, but not outright independence, for his homeland, which was occupied by Chinese troops from 1950. But Beijing is intensifying propaganda telling its citizens and the rest of the world that the Dalai Lama, not failings in government policy, caused the trouble and that he wants to ruin Beijing's Olympic Games in August.

Musharraf vows support for new Pakistan govt

Reuters, Islamabad

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf assured his full support on Sunday for an incoming government that will almost certainly be led by a prime minister he had jailed for over four years. The Pakistan People's Party of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto nominated former National Assembly speaker, Yousaf Raza Gilani, for the premiership on Saturday, though it remains unclear whether Gilani is a stop-gap, keeping the seat warm for Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower. Gilani swore allegiance to Bhutto, assassinated in a gun and bomb attack on Dec. 27, and said he would carry forward her mission.

"Whatever democracy we have in the country, no matter in which shape it is, it's because of the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto," he told reporters after filing his nomination for the post. "We will endeavour for the supremacy of the parliament." Gilani is expected to win with a thumping majority when the National Assembly votes on Monday, particularly after a regional pro-Musharraf party pledged its support. Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, a senior leader of Musharraf's main allied party, on Sunday said he would challenge Gilani in the vote.

India testfires nuclear-capable missile

AFP, New Delhi

India on Sunday test fired a medium-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile capable of hitting most targets in neighbouring Pakistan, a defence official said. The Agni-1 missile, which has a range of more than 700 kilometres (430 miles), was fired at 10:15 am (0445 GMT) from an island off the coast of the eastern state of Orissa, the official said. "The user trial of the missile passed the requisite expectations," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Agni -- Sanskrit for "fire" -- is a 12-metre (39-foot) medium-range ballistic missile that can be fired from mobile launchers and can carry a one-tonne warhead. In April, India staged a successful test of Agni-III, its longest range ballistic missile capable of transporting a nuclear warhead more than 3,000 kilometres, putting targets deep inside China within its reach.