Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan?
Insurgent attackers massacred 35 workers at a road-construction encampment in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, the provincial governor said, marking one of the most lethal assaults of its kind in recent years.Insurgents sometimes target work crews on infrastructure projects, regarding such construction as beneficial to the central government and foreign forces in Afghanistan. But most such projects have a substantial security contingent, and it is unusual for insurgents to be able to kill so many in a single strike.
The attack took place before dawn in Paktia province as most of those in the camp were sleeping, according to Rohullah Samon, the provincial governor. He said the dead included laborers, technical personnel and security guards. In addition to those killed, 20 people were injured, he said.Eight of the assailants died as well, the governor said. The size of the attacking force was not known, but a government investigation team was dispatched to the site.
Although officials blamed the attack on insurgents, there was no immediate claim of responsibility. The Haqqani network, a violent Taliban offshoot based in Pakistan, is active in the area, which lies close to the Pakistani border.
Elsewhere, anti-Western protests flared for a second day in the northern city of Taloqan but were smaller and less violent than those a day earlier, when a peaceful demonstration escalated into clashes that left a dozen people dead. Three people were hurt in Thursday's demonstration.
The protests broke out Wednesday, hours after a U.S.-led nighttime raid on a compound on the city's outskirts left four people dead, two men and two women. Western military officials said they were insurgents; townspeople said they were civilians. President Hamid Karzai, a longtime opponent of night raids, condemned the NATO strike.
In the last year, the Western military has become increasingly reliant on targeted strikes aimed at insurgent figures. Use of such special-operations raids is likely to figure prominently in U.S. strategy as a drawdown of conventional forces begins in July.
Afghan officials and human-rights groups have long denounced such strikes, charging that the intelligence involved is often faulty and that raids on residential compounds, especially in darkness, carry too high a risk of killing and wounding innocent people.
The Taliban movement was quick to capitalize on public anger over both the raid and the deaths of protesters. A statement by the group's leadership called it a "crime against humanity" perpetrated by "foreign and hireling security forces."
The Taliban also issued a separate statement denying that direct contacts meant to lead to peace talks has been taking place between Taliban and U.S. representatives.
In the wake of Osama bin Laden's death, there has been speculation that the insurgents might be more willing to embark on negotiations to end the nearly decade-long conflict. The Taliban movement has publicly vowed to continue its fight, but the subject is clearly a sensitive one.
"Reports of negotiation or direct contact with the invaders are mere futile rumors," said a statement signed by spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid.
Karzai has repeatedly called on the insurgents to enter peace talks and renewed those appeals in the wake of Bin Laden's killing by U.S. forces in a raid inside Pakistan. Several Taliban field commanders have said senior leaders are weighing their options but have ordered the group's usual spring offensive to continue in the meantime.
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