 |
At least nine members of a private security firm have been killed in a roadside bombing in eastern Afghanistan, local Afghan officials say.
The bomb blast damaged a car carrying security firm workers in the village of Asmar in Kunar province late on Thursday, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Local officials said the nine people killed were working for a road construction company.
No further details on the nationality of the security guards who were killed have been disclosed.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, a spokesman for the militant group said in a statement.
Mercenaries of the infamous private security firm Xe, formerly known as Blackwater, have contracts to provide security in Afghanistan, but the private security firm that employed the nine men has not been identified.
In the June 4 edition of The Wall Street Journal, it was reported that Xe's most recent government contract tasked the group with protecting CIA bases in Afghanistan.
The report was confirmed at the end of June by Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta during a TV interview, the newspaper wrote.
Blackwater/Xe mercs were hated by the Iraqis during their time in that country because they were able to kill many civilians with impunity.
Over the past few months, public opinion has been turning against the war in the United States and other countries, and thus US President Barack Obama's upbeat assessments about progress in the Afghan war will probably not go down well at home or abroad.
The death toll for US service members stationed in Afghanistan reached 66 for the month of July 2010, making it the deadliest month for US troops deployed in the Central Asian nation since the conflict began in October 2001.
The bomb blast damaged a car carrying security firm workers in the village of Asmar in Kunar province late on Thursday, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Local officials said the nine people killed were working for a road construction company.
No further details on the nationality of the security guards who were killed have been disclosed.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, a spokesman for the militant group said in a statement.
Mercenaries of the infamous private security firm Xe, formerly known as Blackwater, have contracts to provide security in Afghanistan, but the private security firm that employed the nine men has not been identified.
In the June 4 edition of The Wall Street Journal, it was reported that Xe's most recent government contract tasked the group with protecting CIA bases in Afghanistan.
The report was confirmed at the end of June by Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta during a TV interview, the newspaper wrote.
Blackwater/Xe mercs were hated by the Iraqis during their time in that country because they were able to kill many civilians with impunity.
Over the past few months, public opinion has been turning against the war in the United States and other countries, and thus US President Barack Obama's upbeat assessments about progress in the Afghan war will probably not go down well at home or abroad.
The death toll for US service members stationed in Afghanistan reached 66 for the month of July 2010, making it the deadliest month for US troops deployed in the Central Asian nation since the conflict began in October 2001.
No comments:
Post a Comment