BaburCM
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A missile fired from inside Pakistan has hit a mosque near a US military base in Afghanistan, killing at least three civilians and injuring four others, police said.
Abdul Qayum Batizoi, the Khost province police chief, said that four or five rockets had been fired over the border on Friday.
One struck the mosque, while others landed in uninhabited areas, he said.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack in a province that has seen an upsurge in violence in recent months.
"It seems to have been an attempt to target Camp Salerno, which is the third largest US base in Afghanistan," Zeina Khodr, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Afghanistan, said.
"This is not the first time that missiles have been launched across the border but the timing is important because, as we know, the Pakistani army is carrying on with its offensive against the Taliban in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP)."
Khost attacks
On Tuesday, a number of suspected Taliban fighters dressed in suicide vests and carrying AK-47s attacked Khost city, the provincial capital, seizing two government buildings before being overpowered by Afghan security forces.
"It took the Afghan security forces, along with American troops, hours to regain control of that area," Khodr said.
The following day, a car bomb exploded outside Camp Salerno killing nine Afghan labourers.
"The Afghan interior ministry told us the reason Khost has been coming under attack a lot in the last couple of months is due to its proximioty to the Pakistan border," Khodr said.
"Afghan officials repeatedly claim that the Afghan and Pakistan Taliban work together and the Afghan Taliban get their help from across the border."
The Taliban has vowed to step up attacks on Afghan cities this year while Washington is in the process of more than doubling its forces in Afghanistan, from 32,000 troops at the beginning of 2009 to a projected 68,000 by the end of the year.
Source: Al Jazeera English - CENTRAL/S. ASIA - Pakistan missile hits Afghan mosque
Abdul Qayum Batizoi, the Khost province police chief, said that four or five rockets had been fired over the border on Friday.
One struck the mosque, while others landed in uninhabited areas, he said.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack in a province that has seen an upsurge in violence in recent months.
"It seems to have been an attempt to target Camp Salerno, which is the third largest US base in Afghanistan," Zeina Khodr, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Afghanistan, said.
"This is not the first time that missiles have been launched across the border but the timing is important because, as we know, the Pakistani army is carrying on with its offensive against the Taliban in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP)."
Khost attacks
On Tuesday, a number of suspected Taliban fighters dressed in suicide vests and carrying AK-47s attacked Khost city, the provincial capital, seizing two government buildings before being overpowered by Afghan security forces.
"It took the Afghan security forces, along with American troops, hours to regain control of that area," Khodr said.
The following day, a car bomb exploded outside Camp Salerno killing nine Afghan labourers.
"The Afghan interior ministry told us the reason Khost has been coming under attack a lot in the last couple of months is due to its proximioty to the Pakistan border," Khodr said.
"Afghan officials repeatedly claim that the Afghan and Pakistan Taliban work together and the Afghan Taliban get their help from across the border."
The Taliban has vowed to step up attacks on Afghan cities this year while Washington is in the process of more than doubling its forces in Afghanistan, from 32,000 troops at the beginning of 2009 to a projected 68,000 by the end of the year.
Source: Al Jazeera English - CENTRAL/S. ASIA - Pakistan missile hits Afghan mosque
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