Afghan policeman shot and killed two Spanish Troops Die in Afghan Shooting

Afghan policeman shot and killed two Spanish Troops Die in Afghan Shooting

KABUL—An Afghan policeman shot and killed two Spanish soldiers and an international interpreter before security forces shot him dead during an army training exercise in northwestern Afghanistan on Wednesday, Afghan and international officials said.

The deaths are the latest in a string of incidents in which Afghan forces have fired on their international mentors during training exercises.

Afghan policemen stand near the skeletal remains of a burnt truck in Badghis province. Afghan police and Spanish troops clashed early Wednesday outside a base in western Afghanistan

Hundreds of Afghans poured into the streets after rumors spread of the death of an Afghan during the exercise, setting fire to government buildings in Badghis province's Qalay-I-Naw district and attacking a nearby military base operated by Spanish troops, local officials said.

The shooting occurred at about 9:20 a.m., officials said. The nationality of the interpreter wasn't known.

In a statement, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said the cause of the shooting was still unclear, though it said reports indicate a member of the Afghan national police fired several rounds and NATO forces returned fire.

The Afghan policeman involved in the shooting may have been a Taliban insurgent, said Sharafuddin Mujadidi, a spokesman for the provincial government of Badghis. A spokesman for the Taliban couldn't be reached to comment.

Mr. Mujadidi said hundreds of Afghan civilians, chanting antigovernment and anti-NATO slogan, tried to enter the base after the gunbattle. "Afghan security forces quickly reacted and cordoned the base, dispersing the mob," he said.


Spanish soldiers patrol near a coal mine in Herat province in western Afghanistan in March.

A NATO official said there were still hundreds of Afghans demonstrating around the military base in Badghis province in the afternoon.

Taliban infiltration among the Afghan police and army is still a major concern despite efforts by Afghan and coalition forces to more thoroughly vet recruits, recently implementing biometric registration to weed out possible insurgents and criminals.

But last month, an Afghan soldier shot and killed two U.S. civilian army trainers and one Afghan during a training exercise, one of several similar incidents throughout the country.

The deaths Wednesday bring to 30 the number of Spanish fatalities in the nine-year U.S.-led war, out of 2,030 international troops, according to icasualties.org. So far this month, 52 members of coalition forces have died, with 30 of those fatalities American.

Violence has picked up in northern and western Afghanistan, which were considered to be quiet by coalition forces who have focused the majority of their troop surge in the southern and eastern parts of the country.

U.S. President Barack Obama ordered for 30,000 U.S. troops to be deployed in the country in December as U.S. forces draw down from Iraq.

—Habib Zahori and Habib Totakhil contributed to this article.

Coppied by http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704540904575451121620463004.html?mod=WSJEUROPE_hpp_MIDDLETopNews

Spanish aid workers freed by Al Qaeda in Mali

Enjoy Spanish aid workers freed by Al Qaeda in Mali



MADRID (AFP) - Two Spanish aid workers held hostage for the past nine months by Al Qaeda's North African branch have been freed in Mali, the Spanish government announced Monday.

"Albert Vilalta and Roque Pasqual are free. They have been freed after spending 268 days in the hands of their kidnappers," Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said in a brief televised statement.

The release is "very good news" and "puts an end to a terrorist action which should never have happened", Zapatero said.

Vilalta, 35, and Pascual, 50, who worked for Catalan aid group Accio Solidaria, were kidnapped north of the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott on November 29, along with a third Spaniard, 39-year-old Alicia Gamez, who was released in March.

They were handed over to the North African branch of Osama Bin Laden's terror network, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), who held them in Mali.

Their release follows the August 16 transfer from Mauritania to Mali of the kidnap mastermind, Malian national Omar Sid'Ahmed Ould Hamma, who had been jailed for 12 years by a Mauritanian court.

Hamma has strong ties to AQIM, although not a member of the group himself.

Spanish dailies El Mundo and ABC both reported on Monday that their release was the result of Hamma's transfer and a payment by the Spanish government which El Mundo put at 3.8 million euros ($4.8 million) and ABC at between 5 million and 10 million.

Zapatero made no mention of any ransom in his statement.

"It has been nine months of suffering for them and their families, days of concern and activity by the government, which stepped up the activities of its political, diplomatic and intelligence services to secure their release," he said.

The prime minister "thanked the various governments for their cooperation, especially the governments in the zone in which the kidnapping happened”.

He said the two are to arrive in Barcelona late on Monday on a special flight accompanied by close relatives and Secretary of State for Cooperation Soraya Rodriguez.

A security official in the Burkina Faso capital of Ouagadougou said a helicopter carrying the two freed men had been due there at around 2:00pm (1400 GMT) but "their arrival has been delayed because of a refuelling" stop.

A Malian government minister said the two men were escorted via a specially secured route out of Mali.

"Mali followed the release of the hostages minute by minute, by opening a humanitarian corridor to secure the success of the operation," said the minister who requested anonymity.

He did not say where this route was or where the hostages were.

Mauritania has accused Mali of being soft on AQIM after it released four prisoners in exchange for French hostage Pierre Camatte in February.

The pair were being held by a cell led by Algeria's Mokhtar Belmokhtar, nicknamed "Belawar", who paid Hamma to kidnap them.

While Belmokhtar is considered more a businessman than a religious fanatic, he is believed to be under pressure from a radical branch of AQIM led by another Algerian, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid.

Zeid has overseen the deaths of two Western hostages, Briton Edwin Dyer and Frenchman Michel Germaneau. The latter was killed after a Franco-Mauritanian raid in an attempt to find him, in which seven of Zeid's men were killed.

He is believed to have been demanding the execution of the Spaniards in retaliation for the July 22 military operation.
coppied by http://jordantimes.com/index.php?news=29464