Italian troops killed
September 18, 2009
The attack of the military convoy was the deadliest on Italian forces in Afghanistan, and caused shock waves to ripple across Europe as EU leaders fight to find enough support to continue the eight year engagement.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said his government shared the pain of the victims' families and that Italy planned a "strong reduction" in its 3,100 troops following the election, but would not do so without the support of NATO allies.
"We are all anxious and hopeful to bring our boys home as soon as possible," Berlusconi told reporters after arriving in Brussels, where he is due to attend an EU summit.
The defense ministry in Rome and the Italian military in Afghanistan confirmed that the six soldiers were all members of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid took responsibility for the attack, saying it has been carried out by a resident of Kabul.
Karzai continues to defend elections
President Karzai admitted on Thursday that some government officials were partial towards him or his challenger in last month's election, but rejected allegations of widespread fraud.
Karzai welcomed the preliminary results announced Wednesday by the Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC), which conducted the August 20 polls.
According to the IEC, Karzai received an absolute majority of 54.6 percent of the vote, double the 27.8 percent of his nearest rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah. However, Karzai did not declare himself the victor saying allegations of fraud should first be "investigated fairly" by IEC and the UN-backed Election Complaints Commission.
"There were some government officials who were partial towards me very, very much, there were other government officials who were partial towards Dr Abdullah very, very much," Karzai told a press conference in his fortified presidential palace.
But he defended the integrity of the elections, saying, "There are problems in the every election, there are sensitivities in every election, but to the level fraud was reported in the media, it was not that much. If there was, it was limited."
The results were released Wednesday shortly after EU election monitors said up to 1.5 million votes, or a quarter of all ballots, had been manipulated or were suspected of having been subjected to tampering.
mrm/Reuters/dpa/AFP
Editor: Andreas Illmer