8 U.S. Soldiers Injured In Afghan Attack
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Insurgents attacked U.S. forces with rocket-propelled grenades and explosives on roads in southern Afghanistan on Friday, injuring at least eight soldiers, two seriously, the U.S. military said.
The first attack occurred at 7 a.m. as a 10-vehicle convoy made its way along a road east of Daychopan, in the province of Zabol. About 10 suspected Taliban insurgents fired RPGs at the convoy, prompting the U.S. forces to fire back with small arms.
About six hours later, rebels set off a roadside bomb near the provincial capital, Qalat, as a U.S. convoy passed. Three soldiers were injured, but all returned to duty.
It was not clear if there were any rebel casualties, said Maj. Rick Peat, a U.S. military spokesman.
In neighboring Uruzgan province, a convoy carrying election workers was also reportedly ambushed Thursday.
Four jeeps carrying staff members from a U.N.-sponsored program to register voters for upcoming elections and their guards came under fire in remote Char Cheno district, provincial police chief Rozi Khan said.
He said the vehicles were destroyed and two drivers and one election worker were missing, but had no further details.
EUROPE
• IGALIKU, Greenland -- The United States, Denmark and Greenland signed agreements Friday to upgrade the early warning radar system at Thule, a U.S. air base during the Cold War that now has a crucial role in the Bush administration's plans for an anti-missile defense system.
"Together we will meet the security challenges of the 21st century, from missile defense to international terrorism," Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said at a ceremony in this village on a fjord.
All 47 residents, give or take a few, turned out, many in local costumes. It isn't every day a world figure comes to this Inuit hamlet. Greenland, the world's largest island, has about 56,000 people.
ASIA
• BEIJING -- Chinese and Pakistani troops wrapped up their first joint anti-terrorism exercises Friday in China's northwestern Muslim region of Xinjiang, the Chinese government said.
The exercise involved more than 200 officers and soldiers from both sides and was held on a mountain range in an area where China borders Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
