Taleban claim to kill Czech NATO troops, 14 others

KABUL: At least four NATO servicemen were killed in an attack in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the International Security Assistance Force said.
Earlier, Ziaul Rahman Sayedkhili, a senior police officer in the eastern province of Parwan, said the death toll included six NATO soldiers, 10 Afghan civilians and two Afghan policemen.
“Two days ago a rocket was fired from the village of Qalandar Khil which hit the Bagram (military) base and this morning a joint Afghan-ISAF operation went there to investigate the case,” he said.
“There was a suicide bomber on a bicycle who detonated his explosives which killed 10 local civilians, two policemen and six ISAF soldiers.”
Wahid Seddiqi, spokesman for the provincial governor of Parwan Province said the soldiers, at least 10 civilians, and two police officers were killed when a suicide bomber attacked Afghan and foreign forces near Charakar, the provincial capital. The Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack.
The violence came as Afghanistan was mired in an electoral crisis after one of the candidates in the presidential elections, Abdullah Abdullah, refused to accept any results until ballots are audited for fraud.
Afghan officials released preliminary election results Monday showing former finance minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai well in the lead for the presidency but said no winner could be declared because millions of ballots were being audited for fraud.
The announcement came as Ahmadzai was locked in a standoff with Abdullah, who has refused to accept any results until all fraudulent ballots are invalidated. A spokesman for his campaign rejected the results and called the decision to release them “a coup.”
ISAF said in a separate statement four of its servicemen were killed. A spokeswoman for the Czech general staff in Prague later said the four dead were Czech soldiers, and that another Czech had been seriously injured.
The Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message to Reuters.
The attack took place amid deteriorating security in Afghanistan as most ISAF forces prepare to leave the country after 12 years of war against Taleban insurgents.