KABUL (Three Turkish Engineers Killed in Afghanistan Suicide Attack)

   

KABUL – Three Turkish engineers died on Monday and another was wounded in a suicide attack against the van in which they were going to work in the eastern province of Nangarhar, an Afghan official told Efe.

The attack occurred in the town of Benegah when a suicide bomber detonated the explosives he was carrying in a motorized rickshaw, provincial Gov. Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said.

The engineers were headed for a construction site.

No insurgent group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which came after the recent freeing of five captive Taliban leaders by the United States in exchange for the only U.S. prisoner remaining in Afghanistan, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

The Afghan conflict has entered one of its bloodiest phases since the U.S. invasion ousted the Taliban regime nearly 13 years ago.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force’s mission in Afghanistan will conclude at the end of 2014, though Washington has announced that it will maintain some 9,800 troops in the country until late 2016.

Afghanistan is also in the midst of a presidential election campaign for the June 14 runoff – Three Turkish engineers died on Monday and another was wounded in a suicide attack against the van in which they were going to work in the eastern province of Nangarhar, an Afghan official told Efe.

The attack occurred in the town of Benegah when a suicide bomber detonated the explosives he was carrying in a motorized rickshaw, provincial Gov. Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said.

The engineers were headed for a construction site.

No insurgent group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which came after the recent freeing of five captive Taliban leaders by the United States in exchange for the only U.S. prisoner remaining in Afghanistan, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

The Afghan conflict has entered one of its bloodiest phases since the U.S. invasion ousted the Taliban regime nearly 13 years ago.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force’s mission in Afghanistan will conclude at the end of 2014, though Washington has announced that it will maintain some 9,800 troops in the country until late 2016.

Afghanistan is also in the midst of a presidential election campaign for the June 14 runoff