World

String of Deadly Attacks In Afghanistan

October 15, 2006 / 2:03 AM EDT / AP

An Army Special Forces soldier died of combat-related injuries sustained in Afghanistan.

Chief Warrant Officer Scott W. Dyer, of Titusville, Fla., died Wednesday in Banditemur, Afghanistan. He was an assistant detachment commander assigned to the Third Battalion, Third Special Forces Group out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina and deployed in August.

The Army says Dyer enlisted in 1987 as a cavalry scout and volunteered in 1993 for Special Forces training. He served as an engineer until 2002 and graduated in 2003 from Warrant Officer's Candidate School. In 2004 he was reassigned as an assistant detachment commander.

He received numerous awards, including the Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Army Achievement Medal. He was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star Medal for valor.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan:

A roadside bomb exploded outside a provincial governor's compound on Saturday — the third attack in five weeks against a provincial leader. The governor of the eastern Afghan province was not hurt but another official was killed, police said.

NATO said two of its soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan on Saturday after militants ambushed the troops with rocket propelled grenades and gunfire. Three soldiers were also wounded in the battle in Kandahar
province Saturday afternoon, NATO said in a statement. The nationalities of the soldiers were not released, though the majority of troops in Kandahar are from Canada.

On Friday, a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed van into a NATO military patrol on a busy commercial street in Kandahar city, firing shrapnel at nearby storeowners and shoppers. One NATO soldier and eight Afghan civilians were killed.

Six Afghan policemen, meanwhile, died after a roadside bomb hit their convoy Friday elsewhere in eastern Afghanistan, said Gen. Anan Roufi, the police chief of Paktia province. The explosion happened in Jaji district, near the border with Pakistan.

Late Friday, Taliban militants attacked a police patrol in Zabul province, sparking a firefight that left two police and three militants dead, said Noor Mohammad Paktin, the provincial police chief.

NATO says its clashes with insurgents have decreased in recent weeks. But militants are increasingly resorting to roadside and suicide attacks in their bid to weaken the government and hit Afghan and foreign troops.

The governor of the eastern Laghman province escaped injury after someone placed a bomb hidden in a plastic bag in an irrigation ditch opposite the governor's compound, said Khalil Rahmani, deputy provincial police chief. It was detonated by remote control as the governor was arriving by car. About a dozen suspects were arrested, Rahmani said.

Gov. Gulab Mangal said it was the second assassination attempt against him in the last couple months.

"It is clear that whoever tries to do good work for the people of Afghanistan, they will try to kill him," Mangal said. "A clear example of this is Abdul Hakim Taniwal."

Taniwal, the former governor of Paktia province, was killed in early September by a suicide bomber. The governor of Helmand was also apparently targeted late last month when a suicide bomber attacked the governor's compound, missing the governor but killing 18 people.

"It is difficult to prevent such attacks, especially against the governors, because governors cannot sit still in their offices," Mangal said. "All the time they need to go out and meet with the people, hear about their problems and find solutions for them."

In the southern province of Kandahar, meanwhile, a suicide car bomb exploded near an Afghan army convoy, injuring three soldiers, said Dawood Ahmadi, the governor's spokesman.