Afghan Officials

A team of insurgent suicide bombers and gunmen struck a provincial capital Thursday, killing as many as 21 people in an audacious attack that underscored deteriorating security conditions across Afghanistan's restive south. Women and children accounted for about half the dead, Afghan officials said. The toll also included at least three policemen and an Afghan journalist. About three dozen people were reported injured. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the strike in Tarin Kot, the capital of Oruzgan province.

It was supposed to have been a festive occasion: a pre-wedding party, held under the stars on a warm night. But suspected insurgent gunmen burst in on the gathering in a village field Thursday, fatally shooting nine men, including the groom, Afghan officials said. Grieving family members and provincial officials said the attack, which took place around 1 a.m. in a remote area of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, might have been due to the fact that a relative of the targeted clan served as the district administrator.

It was supposed to have been a festive occasion: a pre-wedding party held under the stars on a warm night. But suspected insurgent gunmen burst in on the gathering in a village field, fatally shooting nine men, including the groom, Afghan officials said. Grieving family members and provincial officials said the attack -- which took place around 1 a.m. Thursday in a remote area of Nangarhar province, in Afghanistan's east -- might have been due to the fact that a relative of the targeted clan served as the district administrator.

A new dispute over civilian deaths erupted Sunday when Afghan officials claimed an errant NATO airstrike had killed 14 people, women and children among them. Western military officials said the incident in Helmand province, which took place late Saturday, was under investigation. Provincial spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said the airstrike was in apparent retaliation for an insurgent attack against a U.S. Marine base in the district of Now Zad. But he said the compound that was hit contained residential structures.

A new dispute over civilian deaths erupted Sunday when Afghan officials claimed an errant NATO airstrike had killed 14 people, women and children among them. Western military officials said the incident in Helmand province, which took place late Saturday, was under investigation. Provincial spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said the airstrike was in apparent retaliation for an insurgent attack against a U.S. Marine base in the district of Now Zad. But he said the compound that was hit contained residential structures.

Insurgents attacked in two Afghan provinces Sunday, killing six people including two policemen and a district council leader, and wounding 20, officials said. Taliban officials denied responsibility for the attacks, despite warnings Saturday that they were beginning their spring offensive. On Sunday morning, a 12 year-old suicide bomber struck a bazaar in the Barmal district of eastern Paktika province, killing four civilians, including a woman and the chairman of the district council, or shura, Shir Nawaz Khan, according to Muhibullah Samim, the provincial governor.

On the first day of the Taliban's self-declared spring offensive, insurgents attacked in two Afghan provinces, killing more than half a dozen people, including a district council leader, and wounding another 20, officials said. Early Sunday, a 12-year-old suicide bomber struck at a bazaar in the Barmal district of eastern Paktika province, killing four people, including a woman and the chairman of the district council, Shir Nawaz Khan, according to Mohibullah Samim, the provincial governor.

Eight U.S. troops killed by an Afghan pilot earlier this week at a military compound at Kabul International Airport were all armed, according to a NATO statement released Friday, prompting more questions about how the pilot managed to kill them and a U.S. contractor and escape the room before dying of gunshot wounds. NATO and Afghan officials were still investigating the Wednesday morning shooting in which a veteran pilot, identified by his brother as Ahmad Gul Sahebi, 48, opened fire on foreign trainers during a meeting.

The great escape from Sarposa prison began with a knocking beneath the floor. A 25-year-old Afghan recounted in a telephone interview Wednesday how three inmates at the prison in the southern city of Kandahar were expecting the knock. When it came about 11:30 p.m. Sunday, they knew what to do. They knocked back. Moments later, the floor gave way to reveal their escape route: a 1,050-foot tunnel, complete with lights and ventilation. The Afghan was referred to Los Angeles Times reporters by a Taliban spokesman.

Afghan authorities have arrested the warden and other officials at the Kandahar prison where nearly 500 insurgents managed to escape this week through a tunnel built by the Taliban, officials said Thursday. Ghulam Dastagher Mayar was among 10 officials arrested at Sarposa prison, about half of those on duty at the time of the prison break that began late Sunday, according to Gen. Amir Mohammad Jamshidi, the country's chief director of prisons. Jamshidi and other Afghan officials declined to identify the other arrested officials or detail the charges against those held.