Taliban Kills 15 Afghan Guards Working for U.S. Firm
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban fighters killed 15 Afghan guards working for a private security company who were guarding a convoy of fuel tankers in western Afghanistan, an official said yesterday. Six Taliban were killed in the ensuing fight.
Several militants also were killed in airstrikes and a subsequent operation by American-led coalition troops in the country’s south on Monday, the coalition said.
Between six and eight vehicles of a private security company were guarding a convoy of fuel tankers when the Taliban attacked early yesterday, Farah province’s governor, Muhaidin Baluch, said.
Fifteen guards were killed and five were wounded, Mr. Baluch said. One fuel tanker was set on fire, he said.
Mr. Baluch said the guards worked for USPI — Houston-based U.S. Protection and Investigations. USPI officials did not immediately return telephone messages seeking comment left at the company’s Houston headquarters. They could not be reached for comment at its offices in Kabul.
However, two USPI employees contacted by the Associated Press, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to talk to the press, said the company’s guards were not involved. One employee said Afghan officials in the south tend to identify all security companies as USPI, even when they are not.
General Khail Buz Sherzai, the provincial police chief, said officials were not sure of the name of the security company.
Mr. Baluch said the tankers were traveling from the western city of Herat to a military outpost in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand province, the region that has seen the heaviest fighting in Afghanistan this year. Elsewhere in Farah, fighting between police and militants left two of the militants dead, General Sherzai said.
In southern Afghanistan, an American-led coalition airstrike on a Taliban commander and subsequent operation in Helmand province killed several militants Monday, the coalition said. The strike targeted a Taliban commander involved in the movement of foreign fighters and suicide bombers, it said.
More than 6,300 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan this year, according to an AP count based on official figures.
