Saturday, August 09, 2008

Taliban target NATO-backed radio transmitter

Text of report in English by Afghan independent Pajhwok news agency website
Faizabad, 9 August: A transmitter of the ISAF-run radio was attacked in the northeastern Badakhshan Province, wounding a guard and damaging a guard room. Sayed Abrar, a police official of the counter-terrorism department in the province, told Pajhwok Afghan News five rockets were fired at the Radio Saday-e Azadi [Radio Voice of Freedom] of NATO forces in outskirts of the provincial capital Faizabad last midnight.
Only one rocket hit the target, wounding a local guard of the transmitter and damaging the guardroom, said Abrar. Other rockets missed the target and did not cause any damages.
Abrar said the attack was the act of the Taliban who sporadically launch rocket attacks at night-time mostly targeting local military bases of foreign forces. A Taliban spokesman, Zabihollah Mojahid, said the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) radio based in Kabul with local offices in northern provinces was stopped after the rocket attack destroyed its transmitter in Badakhshan.
Radio Saday-e Azadi mainly airing music and news with publicity against militants has local transmissions in northern provinces in addition to its main transmissions in Kabul.
(Source: Pajhwok Afghan News website, Kabul, in English 1548 gmt 9 Aug 08 via BBC Monitoring/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)