Twenty-five foreign fighters were killed and wounded by Afghan security forces after they crossed the border from Pakistan, a government official said, the first sign of retaliatory attacks in Afghanistan after al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed. Jamaluddin Badr, governor of northeastern Nuristan province, said the 25 foreign fighters killed and wounded overnight included Arabs, Chechens and Pakistanis.
He said the operation was launched to guard against attacks after bin Laden’s death. “We are aware of the situation here now that Al Qaeda and other elements will try to infiltrate into Afghanistan. We have launched an operation to control border infiltration,” Badr told Reuters. Meanwhile, up to 10 Afghan guards were killed on Tuesday in a NATO airstrike along a highway in southern Afghanistan, police said.
