Insurgents fired two rockets Monday into a crowded market north-east of Kabul where the head of French forces in Afghanistan was holding a meeting with tribal elders. The attack killed 12 Afghan civilians and wounded at least another 38, the French military said.
Lieutenant Colonel Lionel, who can only be identified by his first name in accordance with French military policy, witnessed the attack in the town of Tagab in Kapisa province and said the target had been the meeting, known as a shura, where Brigadier General Marcel Druart was discussing with tribal elders a major French offensive in the Tagab Valley the previous day.
"The target was clearly the shura," Lionel said, explaining that these types of meetings were vulnerable because so many invitations to attend were issued in advance. Druart, who was not hurt, told The Associated Press that the attack "shows clearly that the insurgents don't care about the lives of the civilian Afghan population."
Speaking at the Nato forward operating base in the Tagab Valley, Druart said French forces immediately retaliated with artillery shelling on the rockets' launching site. Sporadic shelling could be heard throughout the afternoon, as attack helicopters hovered overhead. Separately in southern Afghanistan, militants attacked a police checkpoint in the violent province of Kandahar overnight, killing at least three policemen and wounding another six, police criminal director of Kandahar Pashton Moamand said.
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