Afghan fighting leaves 21 dead

KABUL (Afghanistan)—Fighting across Afghanistan killed 10 suspected rebels, six police and five medical workers, and President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday he believes the insurgents are receiving support from the nation’s booming drug trade.
The suspected Taliban guerrillas were killed Monday by U.S. warplanes that bombed their hideout in Uruzgan province, which has long been a hotbed of militant activity, local Gov. Jan Mohammed Khan said Wednesday.
U.S. military spokeswoman Sgt. Marina Evans confirmed the attack and said “several of the enemy had been killed.” The six police were killed by suspected Taliban who ambushed their convoy in the same area a day later, Khan said. One officer was still missing after the attack and feared dead. Reinforcements have been rushed to the area “to hunt down the Taliban,” he said.
The attack on the medical workers happened Wednesday near Kandahar city, a former Taliban stronghold, said doctor Abdul Qadir, director of U.N. and U.S.-sponsored Afghan Help Development Services, a local aid group that employed the five.
Gunmen opened fire on their vehicle as they drove through the desert. Two of the five dead were doctors. Three other medical workers in the vehicle were wounded, Qadir said. The eight were returning to Kandahar after treating refugees in a nearby camp. Karzai made his comments about the violence in a press conference with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. When asked about an attack on police in southern Helmand province Tuesday that left at least 19 officers dead, he said there was “cooperation between the drug trade and terrorism.” He said the region was well known as a center for trafficking opium and heroin. Afghanistan produces an estimated 87 percent of the world’s supply of both the drugs, sparking warnings that the country is becoming a “narco-state” four years after a U.S.-led invasion drove the Taliban from power. “We will have terrorism attacking (us) ... for quite some time,” Karzai warned. He went on to say that fighting drugs was essential.