3 NATO troops killed in Afghanistan attacks

KABUL, Afghanistan — The head of a provincial health department in northern Afghanistan was killed Tuesday by a bomb planted in his private clinic, while three NATO servicemen were killed in attacks, officials said.

Dr. Azizullah Safari was walking up to his second floor clinic when a bomb exploded under the stairwell, said Muhbobullah Sayedi, a spokesman for the governor of Kunduz province.

Also Tuesday, the international coalition reported the deaths of three service members, bringing the number of its troops killed in the war to at least 67 so far this month.

NATO said a U.S. soldier died Tuesday after an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan, but did not disclose further details.

British defense officials said a member of the 40 Commando Royal Marines was shot Tuesday during fighting in the Sangin district of southern Helmand province. Another member of the same unit died Monday night in a blast in Sangin, the officials said.

Meanwhile, NATO and Afghan forces captured a senior Taliban figure in an overnight raid, the international force said. The man had recently been appointed the Taliban’s finance chief in Baghlan, a northern province, NATO said.

He was captured in Helmand along with two other suspected insurgents after a tip-off that he was staying in a compound in Nah-e Saraj district.

Also in the south, one child was killed Tuesday when a bomb, planted on a donkey, exploded at a checkpoint in Kandahar, said Qayum Khan, chief of investigation for the Kandahar Police Department. He said another child and an elderly man were injured in the explosion.

In Washington, lawmakers on Tuesday criticized U.S. military officials for failing to heed warnings about the role they say a Pentagon transportation contract plays in fueling extortion and corruption in Afghanistan.

Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., said at a hearing that the trucking companies hired to move food, water, fuel and ammunition to American troops stationed at bases across Afghanistan are forced to pay warlords millions of dollars to ensure safe passage through dangerous areas.

The spoils may then be funneled to the Taliban and insurgent forces with ties to the warlords, potentially making the U.S. an unwitting financier of the enemy.

“U.S. taxpayer dollars are feeding a protection racket in Afghanistan that would make Tony Soprano proud,” Tierney said, referring to the fictional mob leader in the TV series The Sopranos.

Military authorities in Afghanistan have only been concerned that the supplies reach their destination and the warnings they received from the trucking companies about extortion payments “fell on deaf ears,” said Tierney, who heads the House Oversight and Government Reform national security subcommittee.

Army Lt. Gen. William Phillips, a senior Pentagon acquisition official, said he was unaware of the allegations that U.S. tax dollars may be indirectly bankrolling the insurgency and promoting instability in Afghanistan.

“We need to research them and determine what the facts and the evidence are,” Phillips said, “and then take hard actions whether it’s contractually or legally.” Information for this article was contributed by Mirwais Khan and Richard Lardner of The Associated Press.