KABUL: A roadside bomb killed three tribal elders in western Afghanistan on Sunday, possibly in retaliation for their cooperation with the government. The men were driving to a meeting with villagers and other tribal elders about what sort of projects the Afghan government and international donors should fund when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb, killing all of them, officials said. One of the dead, Sayid Ahmad, was the head of the group of tribal elders who organized the meeting, said Abdul Basir Kherkywi, the head of Farah's provincial council. The meeting was common knowledge in the area and officials said the men were probably directly targeted. “The enemy probably knew they'd be driving on this road,” said Yonus Rasouli, the deputy governor. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Taliban and other insurgent groups regularly target Afghans working with the government or international forces. These sorts of attacks increased dramatically last year. According to the U.N., civilian deaths jumped 15 percent in 2010 to 2,770 because of increased insurgent attacks, while those attributed to U.S.-led forces dropped 26 percent. Also Sunday, a NATO service member was killed in an attack in the north of the country, the international military coalition said. It did not provide further details or the nationality of the dead.
