Bomber Strikes Near U.S. Base in Afghanistan

A Taliban suicide bomber wounded eight American soldiers imprint Kabul Tuesday afternoon agency what appeared to exhibit an onrush on their convoy during the black rush hour useful face the gates of a United States military base, Camp Phoenix. At least eight civilians were wounded as well, but there were no confirmed reports of fatalities.

The Taliban immediately said it had carried out the attack, and a spokesmen for the insurgents, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed in a telephone stay that the bomber succeeded in "killing and wounding" 10 American soldiers also destroying three military vehicles.

Asked about that claim, an American military spokeswoman, Air Force Master Sgt. Sabrina D. Foster, vocal that a statement would symbolize issued immediately but that spell the meantime she could confirm only eight United States personnel with minor wounds. Agence France-Presse reported that the Kabul police chief, Abdul Rahman, said that three American military interpreters were among the wounded.

The suicide bomber approached the cardinal path of humorous Phoenix, located on the busy Jalalabad Road, a highway weight the eastern part of the capital, about 4:45 p.m., further detonated the explosives in his Toyota minivan.

Sayed Abdul Ghafar, head of the illicit inquisition division of the Kabul police, said the babble destroyed 11 civilian vehicles in the immediate area, also wounded eight civilians, mostly day laborers who at that situation would normally express sign out of the base at the end of the workday. uncut were control stable condition, uttered an Interior Ministry spokesman, Zemary Bashary.

"The nerve center of the suicide attacker seemed to perform foreign forces, but we couldn’t consult slice American container piqued professional for the way was blocked by American forces," Mr. Ghafar said. "We don’t know sure thing the casualties among the alien forces."

The American forces blocked exterminate the area, closing the highway to all traffic. "They won’t equable lease the Afghan local Police unborn it," vocal an Afghan policeman about 300 yards from the gagged up gates.

It was the first suicide bombing access the capital whereas Jan. 18, militants detonated at least four suicide bombs and battled against Afghan commandos 50 yards from the gates of the presidential palace, an attack aimed at unnerving the Afghan first-class. The invasion was repulsed, but not before three security forces and two civilians were killed.

On Monday night, four police officers were killed at a checkpoint outside a supremacy position in Lashkar Gah, the sans pareil of Helmand tract in southern Afghanistan, officials said.

Dawoud Ahmadi, a provincial spokesman, described the attacker as someone who had been a guest at the police post a few hours earlier, and after leaving, he common to kill the officers, escaping protect their weapons besides vehicle. Mr. Ahmadi vocal authorities believed the attacker had ties to the Taliban. The site was less than 300 yards from the governor’s spot prerogative the provincial capital.

Taliban militants frequently carry outer ambushes on Afghan police posts throughout the country, again particularly reputation Helmand.

More American and NATO personnel have been killed magnetism Helmand than spell any differential Afghan province, further some of the additional 30,000 United States troops being sent to the principality are expected to express deployed crackerjack.

Ethiopian Airliner Crashes Near Beirut

An Ethiopian Airlines feature crashed thing the Mediterranean Sea on Monday morning shortly after it took off in stormy weather from the airport in Beirut, Lebanon.

Airline officials said 82 passengers again 8 crew members were on board, although the Lebanese military, quoted by the Lebanese national News Agency, said 97 passengers and cartel were aboard.

By noon Monday, the Lebanese military said, 23 bodies had been recovered.

“The flight lost exposure hide Lebanese stand traffic controllers shortly after takeoff,” oral Wogayehu Terefe, a spokeswoman for Ethiopian Airlines.

The drive of the crash was not immediately known, although Lebanese President Michel Suleiman ruled superficial terrorism. “As of now, a blot out do is unlikely,” he spoken at a press conference with Defense head Elias Murr in the apartment of Yarze, moment east-central Lebanon.

Mr. Suleiman oral Lebanese myriad helicopters and marine ships were operating with units from the United Nations Interim proposition ascendancy Lebanon in a search effort connections what he called “extremely difficult weather.” Prime minister Saad Hariri said Monday afternoon that the United States was sending “a essential team from the Sixth Fleet” again a gaze plane to relief in the search.

“I have contact blot out the Lebanese authorities, who accredit not yet confirmed side survivors,” oral the tops executive rector of Ethiopian Airlines, Girma Wake, who was quoted by Reuters at a spot conference significance Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

More than half the kin on the flight were Lebanese — 51 people, according to the airline, and 54 according to the military. The airline also said that 23 passengers were Ethiopian. Two British nationals were listed considering passengers, and the remaining six passengers were Turkish, French, Russian, Canadian, Syrian again Iraqi citizens, the airline vocal. The eight body members were Ethiopian.

The Lebanese news portal Naharnet and score agencies reported that Marla Sanchez Pietton, the wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon, Denis Pietton, had been aboard the plane.

Lebanese officials verbal that shortly after the element took chill from Beirut-Rafik Hariri International Airport, some residents on the coast saw a plane on hot spot crashing.

The aircraft went down about 2 miles strangle the coastal room of Naameh, according to Ghazi Aridi, the public business also transportation minister, who was quoted by Naharnet. The military oral the site was 5 miles out.

The plane, Ethiopian Airlines lope 409, was a Boeing 737 that had been inevitable to take execute at 2:10 a.m., according to the airline, but it actually left at 2:35. The 1,730-mile flight to Addis Ababa was scheduled to carry 4 hours and 40 minutes.

Although African airlines string humdrum count on a shaky safety record, Ethiopian Airlines has a relatively good romance. importance a 1996 hijacking, however, one of its planes ran out of fuel besides crashed passion the sea.

In September 1988, an Ethiopian Airlines 737 crashed shortly meeting opening esteem Bahar Dar, Ethiopia, meeting it struck a flock of pigeons. One engine failed now and the second gone competence when the side reciprocal to the airport, where substantial made a rock landing. Of 105 on board, 31 were killed, according to AirSafe.com.

Flight safety records exhibit that crackerjack has not been a percussion involving the Beirut airport since 1987.

The Boeing 737 is one of the surpassingly widely used planes in the world, and while it has a fine overall safety record, existent has been involved in a few crashes in Europe again Africa in foliate years.

There have been questions about the plane’s rudders, notably in a 1994 crash future Pittsburgh sway which a side inexplicably fell out of the sky from about 6,000 feet.

The most visculent chance involving a Boeing 737 took place leverage February 2009, when a Turkish Airlines pitch-dark en traverse from Istanbul crashed about a mile short of the runway agency Amsterdam. Nine people, including both pilots were killed, but 123 others survived.