Taliban ambush convoy with U.S., European tourists in Afghanistan, injuring 6

  (Stringer/EPA)

 

A convoy of a dozen foreign tourists including three Americans was ambushed and attacked by Taliban militants Thursday in a remote region of western Afghanistan, leaving at least six people injured, Afghan officials said. None of the travelers was immediately identified, and the nationalities of the injured were also not known.
The group was travelling in a minibus with an Afghan army escort vehicle on a rural highway in Herat Province when they came under Taliban attack with gunfire and rockets. A spokesman for the provincial governor said that six of the 12 travelers were wounded, including one woman and a driver. He said none of the injuries was life-threatening and that they “seemed to be superficial.”
Efforts were underway to airlift the victims by helicopter to Herat, the provincial capital.The tourists included six British citizens, three Americans, two Scots and one German, the spokesman said.
Initial news reports of 10 foreigners killed in the assault were inaccurate. Officials at the Interior and Defense ministries in Kabul confirmed the basic account.
It was not known why the tourists were visiting the region, but the highway on which they were driving connects Herat with Bamiyan Province, home of the historic 7th century Buddha statues carved into high cliffs.
There are also other religious sites in the region, including a world-famous Persian shrine and an ancient citadel in Herat, which is near the border with Iran.
Very few international visitors currently travel in rural Afghanistan, which has been embroiled in conflict with Taliban insurgents for the past decade, and is now under added threat from militant groups affiliated with the Islamic State.
Most foreign travellers are part of research or aid teams, and numerous groups have conducted work at the Bamiyan site.
In 2001, Taliban militants destroyed famous 1,500-year-old statues of Buddha carved into a cliff in Bamiyan on apparent orders from then leader Mohammed Omar, who sought to remove non-Islamic artifacts and culture from Afghanistan. Experts from the U.N. world heritage organization and other experts have studied ways to possible rebuild the statues.