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Suicide bomb kills US service member in Kabul
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-17 21:40


Fire fighters put out a fire after a blast outside the German embassy in Kabul January 17, 2009. [Agencies] 

Taliban militants, fighting to overthrow the Afghan government and drive out foreign troops, have launched hundreds of suicide attacks in the last two years, but some 80 percent of the victims are Afghan civilians.

While Taliban influence has spread from their traditional heartlands in the south and east to areas closer to the capital, there were fewer attacks inside Kabul last year than in 2007 with many more police checkpoints throughout the city.

US President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to make Afghanistan a foreign policy priority after he takes office on Tuesday and is expected to approve the doubling of US troops in the country from the 30,000 at present.

In a separate incident a US military Chinook helicopter made a hard landing in Kunar province in east Afghanistan. All passengers were safe, a US military spokesman said. It is the second US helicopter accident in Afghanistan in as many days.

No further details were available and the incident was under investigation, the spokesman added, but a provincial official said he could see smoke rising from the helicopter and passengers being evacuated from the aircraft.