AFGHANISTAN: GERMAN GENERAL TAKES OVER COMMAND OF THE KABUL MULTI-NATIONAL BRIGADE AS TWO U.S. SOLDIERS ARE INJURED IN GRANADE ATTACK.

Record ID: 292614

  • Title: AFGHANISTAN: GERMAN GENERAL TAKES OVER COMMAND OF THE KABUL MULTI-NATIONAL BRIGADE AS TWO U.S. SOLDIERS ARE INJURED IN GRANADE ATTACK.
  • Date: 18th December 2002
  • Summary: (W3) BAGRAM AIRBASE, AFGHANISTAN (DECEMBER 18, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. WS: CAPTAIN ALAYNE CRAMER,MILITARY SPOKESWOMAN GIVING A NEWS BRIEFING OUTSIDE 0.07 2. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) CAPTAIN ALAYNE CRAMER, MILITARY SPOKESPERSON, SAYING "Two US soldiers and an interpreter were injured in an attack in Kabul yesterday afternoon and all are reported to be
  • Embargoed: 2nd January 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGRAM AIRBASE AND KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
  • Country: Afghanistan
  • Reuters ID: LVA50NJMWHHX5G1POQSUZT9JW8Q9
  • Story Text: Two American soldiers and an Afghan interpreter were
    seriously wounded when a small grenade was thrown into their
    vehicle in central Kabul on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.

    A new German General has taken over the command of the
    Kabul Multi-National Brigade. Germany is due to take over the
    command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
    in Kabul in February.



    Afghan officials said they had arrested a male teenager
    carrying two hand grenades, who confessed to carrying out the
    attack "for the cause of Muslims in Palestine and Afghanistan"
    on Tuesday (December 17, 2002).

    Another man was arrested after he was seen running from
    the scene of the attack.

    One of the U.S. soldiers was wounded in the head and the
    lower left leg, while the other sustained a shrapnel wound to
    the right leg.

    Shopkeepers and passers-by said they saw a man throwing an object,
    then an explosion. Blood could be seen on the road.

    Deputy Interior Minister Hilaluddin Hilal told Reuters a
    teenager of 17 to 19 had already confessed to the attack.

    Captain Alayne Cramer, a spokeswoman at the U.S.

    headquarters at Bagram north of Kabul, said the three wounded
    were in stable condition after being rushed for treatment at a
    facility run by the International Security Assistance Force
    (ISAF).

    There are about 8,000 American troops in Afghanistan
    hunting for remnants of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and
    their allies from the ousted Taliban regime.

    Thousands of allied soldiers are helping the U.S.-led
    military operation, and there are also around 4,700 ISAF
    foreign peacekeepers in Kabul.

    Around 40 U.S. personnel have been killed in combat and
    non-combat incidents and more than 300 have been hurt over the
    past year.

    Captain Cramer said attacks on U.S. forces "have been
    pretty steady over the past three months". She said the number
    of rocket attacks had remained the constant "but what they
    have been doing is using more rockets during each attack, so,
    whereas maybe in September we had two rockets per attack for
    each individual attack, now we have between five and six
    rockets that are fired at the fire bases."
    Kabul has been hit by a series of explosions this year,
    the worst of which occurred in early September when a car bomb
    in the city centre killed 26 people and injured dozens more.

    On December five Afghan police said they had averted a
    potentially deadly explosion at a main mosque in Kabul, where
    thousands of Muslims gathered to offer special prayers to mark
    Eid al-Fitr celebrations.

    Last month at least five rockets landed outside an ISAF
    base in Kabul. Afghan officials have blamed followers of the
    former Taliban regime and al Qaeda network for the attacks.

    German Brigadier General Werner Freers took over the
    command of the Kabul Multi-National Brigade from Brigadier
    General Manfred Schlenker on Wednesday.

    Commander of the Bundeswehr Operations Command on Occasion
    General Friedrich Riechmann presided over the ceremony.

    The Turkish Major-General Hilmi Akim Zorlu, Commander of
    the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said at
    the ceremony "As a result of these efforts KMNB did not suffer any
    casualties during your time of command, while security was
    increasing in Kabul and in surrounding areas."
    The generals reviewed German troops, as well as soldiers
    from the multinational International Security Assistance Force
    (ISAF).

    Germany, along with the Netherlands, are due to take over
    the command of ISAF, a multinational force providing security
    in the Afghan capital Kabul.

    General Freers joined the German Army Aviation Corps in
    1973. He trained as a combat helicopter pilot. He received
    further training in the United States. From December 1995 to
    February 1996, he served with UNSCOM in Baghdad. His most
    recent position was Commander for the Air Mechanised Brigade
    1, based in Fritzlar.


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