ISAF and U.S. troops in Afghanistan face mounting attacks

KABUL, July 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Five American troops were injured Saturday, July 19, in two separate attacks on U.S. troops in the war-scarred country, as Germany decided to cut the number of its troops serving in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan by one-third.

"Two coalition soldiers and one Afghan Military Forces soldier were wounded when their patrol was ambushed north of Orgun (in southeastern Afghanistan 's Paktika province) about 11:00 am (Saturday)," Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported according to a statement released by the U.S. military.

"The wounded soldiers were evacuated to Forward Operating Base Salerno near Khost," it said. "They are in stable condition and are being moved to the U.S. Army hospital at Bagram (40 kilometers or 25 miles north of Kabul )."

"Enemy forces that engaged the patrol were armed with AK-47 rifles and rocket propelled grenades," it said, adding the names of the wounded service members were being withheld for privacy.

In another incident, three U.S. soldiers were wounded when their vehicle was hit by a bomb in northeastern Afghanistan , a U.S. military spokesman said Saturday.

"Three coalition soldiers were wounded and one vehicle was damaged when an improvised explosive device detonated in the middle of their convoy approximately eight kilometers south of Asad Abad yesterday (Friday) afternoon," Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Lefforge told reporters at Bagram Air Base, 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Kabul .

"It was a deliberately planted bomb," he said, adding it was not known who was behind the attack in eastern Kunar province.

"The three soldiers were medically evacuated to Bagram Air Base yesterday and are in stable condition," Lefforge said.

A rocket was also fired at a U.S. Special Forces base inside the former house of ousted Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar in the Afghan city of Kandahar , without causing casualties, officials said Saturday.

The rocket was fired on Friday evening and landed several meters behind the compound in the southern Afghan city, causing only minor damage.

Eight Afghan soldiers were killed and one seriously wounded Friday, July 18, in a similar incident in southeastern Khost province which Afghan authorities blamed on al-Qaeda fighters.

Some 19 months after the fall of the Taliban regime, an 11,500 strong U.S.-led coalition is pursuing members of ousted regime and its al-Qaeda allies who continue to launch attacks, mainly in the southeastern border region.

German Troops Reduced 

Meanwhile, Germany decided to cut the number of its troops serving in the ISAF ISAF in Afghanistan by one-third to 1,500 by the end of September, the defense ministry said Saturday.

"The number of soldiers will go from some 2,300 currently to 1,500 at the end of September," a ministry spokesman told AFP.

Germany , which together with the Netherlands has been in charge of the 4,600-strong force since February, will hand over on August 11 command of ISAF to NATO, whose troops have already arrived in Kabul on July 14.

With Canada having taken command of the main ISAF base on Thursday, July 17, Germany could begin to draw down its contingent, which formed the backbone of the force, said the spokesman.

A multinational force drawn from 29 nations, ISAF's mandate does not stretch outside the Afghan capital.

Four German peacekeepers were killed in a car bomb explosion on June 7 in the most deadly attack on ISAF forces since they deployed in late 2001.

Prisoners Return Home   

Some of the 16 Afghan prisoners freed from a U.S. military jail in Guantanamo

Meanwhile, sixteen Afghans detained by the American military at Guantanamo Bay were freed Saturday, July 19, following their return from Cuba three days earlier, an Afghan police official said.

"Sixteen Afghan prisoners from Guantanamo Bay arrived Thursday night by plane at the Bagram Air Base (40 kilometers north of Kabul)," said police official Mohammad Khalil Aminzada.

"They were handed over immediately to the Afghan police and brought that evening to Kabul ," he said.

The sixteen were interrogated for two days by the police and then freed late Saturday afternoon and handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), he said.

A Pentagon official said Friday that about 30 detainees, some from Pakistan and Afghanistan , had left Guantanamo Bay to be repatriated to their countries.

The released Afghan prisoners were not allowed to talk to journalists.

About 680 alleged members of the deposed Taliban regime and suspected al-Qaeda members are imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay .

Originating from 42 countries, they have been held and interrogated by the United States for up to 18 months at its naval base at Guantanamo Bay .

Classified as "illegal combatants" by President George W. Bush, their fate is uncertain. But several groups have already been returned to their countries of origin, where the local authorities decide if they are to be released.

Amnesty International, however, called on the U.S. to resolve the "legal limbo" of hundreds of prisoners detained at Guantanamo , slamming Washington 's continuing defiance of international law.