British soldiers killed in southern Afghanistan

The incident came almost exactly a month after an Afghan policeman on patrol with US soldiers opened fire on the Americans, killing two before fleeing.

Training and operating jointly with Afghan police and soldiers is key to NATO’s strategy of dealing with the spreading Taliban-led insurgency and, ultimately, allowing international forces to leave Afghanistan.

Former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, who was the main challenger to President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan’s recent fraud-marred election, said the continuing violence showed the Karzai administration had failed to bring peace to the country despite assistance from international forces.

“As far as the presence of international forces in Afghanistan is concerned, eight years of golden opportunity we have missed. You were here. Your soldiers were here, and they have made sacrifices for bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan,” Abdullah said during a news conference in Kabul.

“But eight years down the road we still need more troops. In the absence of a credible and reliable and legitimate partner, more soldiers, more resources” are needed, he said.

Presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada said it was an isolated attack.

“These are incidents that can happen anywhere. The crazy man who has done this has also attacked the Afghan police,” he told the AP. “You can’t use this isolated incident to say that there is a problem with the police force of Afghanistan. In the US, people shoot up people in a shopping mall. There are crazy people everywhere.”

The five British soldiers were killed in Helmand’s Nad-e-Ali district on Tuesday afternoon, Britain’s Defense Ministry said, bringing the total number of British forces who have died in Afghanistan to 229.

Six other British soldiers and two Afghan policemen were wounded in the attack, NATO forces headquarters in Kabul said in a joint statement with the Interior Ministry. Britain has 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, the second largest force after the United States. Last month, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced plans to increase troop numbers in the country by about 500.

The soldiers had been mentoring Afghan national police and had been working and living in the police checkpoint, Lt. Col. David Wakefield, spokesman for the British forces, told Sky News.

“It is our initial understanding that an individual Afghan policeman possibly acting in conjunction with one other started firing inside the checkpoint before fleeing from the scene,” he said.

A Helmand police official also said the attacker was a policeman.

NATO said the attacker’s motives were unclear, and that the incident was being investigated by Afghan authorities and Britain’s Royal Military Police.

The commander of international forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, said he discussed the shooting with Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar, who “gave me his assurance that this incident will be fully and transparently investigated.”

“We will not let this event deter our resolve to building a partnership with the Afghan National Security Forces to provide for Afghanistan’s future,” he said in the joint statement.

Atmar said the attack “appears to be an isolated incident that is being jointly investigated.”

This is not the first time such an incident has occurred. Last year over a period of less than a month, Afghan policemen twice attacked American soldiers in the east of the country. In October 2008, a policeman threw a grenade and opened fire on a US foot patrol, killing one soldier.

New Afghan government within three weeks 

Technocrats and some existing ministers will be included among Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s new government within the next three weeks, a spokesman said on Wednesday, but his main rival ruled out taking any part.

Karzai, re-elected after a needless presidential runoff vote was abandoned on Monday, has received stern warnings from US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and others in the West that he must work harder to root out corruption that tainted his previous administration.

The runoff, triggered after widespread fraud marred the first round in August, was canceled after Karzai’s only rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew citing serious concerns about the vote.

That decision came after weeks of political uncertainty, while Obama also weighs whether to send up to 40,000 more troops to fight a resurgent Taliban, who had threatened to disrupt the poll and branded Karzai’s return as a farce.

Karzai has committed himself to an inclusive government, but Abdullah ruled out taking any part despite pressure for a power-sharing deal.

“I have no interest in the future cabinet of Karzai’s government and I will pursue my agenda, which is change,” Abdullah told a news conference at his Kabul home.

Abdullah branded the government-appointed Independent Election Commission (IEC) decision to cancel the Nov. 7 runoff as illegal and said Karzai would not be able to deliver on promises of reform.

“A government which is derived from such an illegal decision will not be able to deliver,” Abdullah said in his first public comments since the IEC’s decision, also urging his supporters to maintain peaceful opposition. Kabul Reuters