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    February 20, 2012

Afghan Police Kill Albanian Soldier

   VOA News

   Albanian officials say Afghan police opened fire on international
   troops Monday in southern Afghanistan, killing an Albanian soldier.
   The Albanian Defense Ministry said authorities arrested 11 Afghan
   police officers after the shooting, which also wounded another Albanian
   soldier and a foreign soldier. Earlier reports said two Albanian
   soldiers had died.
   It said the incident occurred in a village near the southern city of
   Kandahar, where the troops were participating in the inauguration of
   two schools.
   This is the first time that an Albanian soldier has been killed in
   Afghanistan. Albania has some 260 troops in the country.

   U.S. soldiers and Afghan policemen keep watch after a car bomb blast in
   Kandahar province, February 20, 2012

Reuters

   U.S. soldiers and Afghan policemen keep watch after a car bomb blast in
   Kandahar province, February 20, 2012

   Earlier Monday in Kandahar, a suicide bomber attacked a police station
   in the city, killing at least one police officer.
   Kandahar police chief Abdul Raziq said the attacker detonated a
   bomb-laden car outside the station, injuring at least four other
   people, both police and civilians. The blast also badly damaged a
   nearby civilian compound.
   Both Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the commander of the
   international coalition in Afghanistan, U.S. General John Allen,
   condemned the attack.
   There was no immediate claim or responsibility for the attack, but
   similar bombings in the past have been blamed on the Taliban.
   Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban, and despite a massive
   campaign by coalition and Afghan forces to increase security in the
   city, insurgents continue to launch attacks on government targets.
   Meanwhile, three Italian soldiers died when their armored vehicle
   crashed into a canal in western Afghanistan, overturning as they were
   crossing a stream. Officials say the accident occurred in Herat
   province's Shindand district.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP.

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