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Bomb kills five U.S. Soldiers In Southern Afghanistan

Five U.S. soldiers were killed by a bomb in southern Afghanistan, a spokesman for the U.S. Armed Forces said on Saturday. The Taliban launched their … Continue reading Bomb kills five U.S. Soldiers In Southern Afghanistan


Five U.S. soldiers were killed by a bomb in southern Afghanistan, a spokesman for the U.S. Armed Forces said on Saturday.

The Taliban launched their annual spring offensive on Sunday, saying it would take aim at foreign military bases and diplomatic areas.

Three British troops were killed by a roadside bomb earlier this week in the southern province of Helmand.

The renewed violence came as Afghan President Hamid Karzai acknowledged that his government has been receiving funds from CIA for more than a decade as part of regular monthly assistance from the U.S. government.

Karzai told reporters at a news conference that the CIA’s station chief in Kabul has assured him that regular funding the U.S. intelligence agency gives his government will not be cut off.

Karzai had earlier confirmed that his government had received such payments following a story published in The New York Times that said the CIA had given the Afghan National Security Council tens of millions of dollars in monthly payments delivered in suitcases, backpacks and plastic shopping bags.

“The help and assistance from the U.S. is for our National Directorate of Security. That is state-to-state, government-to-government regular assistance,” Karzai said. “So that is a government institution helping another government institution, and we appreciate all this assistance and help, all this assistance is very useful for us. We have spent it in different areas (and) solved lots of our problems.”

Karzai would not say how much assistance his government had received because it was being used for intelligence work, but acknowledged it was in cash and that “all the money which we have spent, receipts have been sent back to the intelligence service of the United States monthly.”