The Hindu : Business : 14 U.S. soldiers killed in attack, says Taliban

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Wednesday, Jun 09, 2004

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14 U.S. soldiers killed in attack, says Taliban

ISLAMABAD, JUNE 8. Taliban insurgents claimed to have killed 14 U.S. soldiers in an overnight attack in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported today.

A Taliban spokesman, Mufti Latifullah Hakeemi, told AIP that the radical militants killed the U.S. soldiers when they ambushed their convoy near the province's Warzakhuwa hamlet late yesterday. Hakeemi also said that the Taliban was responsible yesterday's explosion in Uruzgan province that left one U.S. soldier dead and two others wounded. U.S. and Afghan troops are hunting fugitive fighters from the deposed Taliban regime in the eastern and southern parts of war-battered Afghanistan.

More than 90 U.S. soldiers have been killed in the country since the 2001 ouster of the former extremist rulers, who have declared a jihad, or holy war, against foreign troops, aid workers and supporters of the U.S.-backed Afghan President, Hamid Karzai.

Meanwhile, as Mr. Hamid Karzai begins a visit to the United States on Tuesday for talks with his chief international backers, speculation is growing at home that he is planning an electoral pact with Afghanistan's most powerful warlords.

Critics say Mr. Karzai is betraying the hopes of millions of war-weary Afghans by aligning himself with powerbrokers who were behind more than 20 years of fighting and still control much of the country.

Mr. Karzai insists he has reached no deals, but suspicions were stoked last week when he met leaders of the Northern Alliance which helped U.S. forces drive out the Taliban regime in 2001.

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