Kabul, Islamabad agree to fight terror together
Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to "honest cooperation" against terrorism after a massive suicide attack in Islamabad killed at least 60 people, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office said yesterday.
Karzai, whose country has been hit by similar attacks, called Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani late Sunday to offer condolences for Saturday's truck bombing of the Marriott Hotel, it said in a statement.
Karzai told Gilani the attack, which has been blamed on al-Qaeda, "shows that the only way to get rid of terrorism is widespread and honest cooperation in war against it," the statement cited the Afghan leader as saying.
The statement quoted Gilani as saying that "now the need for a joint strategy in the 'war against terror' is felt more than ever."
"People of both countries are affected by terrorist attacks and a joint cooperation between both countries is needed," he was cited as saying.
The neighbours, US allies in its "war on terror" launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, have been at odds over the extremism that dogs both Islamic countries.
But their relations appear to have softened with the election this month of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, who replaced former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, with whom Karzai had a difficult relationship.
Karzai has long been advocating a regional approach to the terrorist threat, saying the extremists have support and sanctuary in Pakistan. Islamabad says the root of the problem is in Afghanistan.
The Afghan leader is due to meet Zardari on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly in New York on Wednesday, his office said.
Meanwhile, Nato says a roadside bomb has killed six civilians and wounded four others in southern Afghanistan.
The military alliance says the Monday blast hit a civilian vehicle traveling in Tirin Kot, the capital of the southern Uruzgan province.
Women and a 12-year-old boy were killed when the pick-up they were travelling in hit a bomb, provincial police chief Juma Gul Hemat told AFP.
They were going to the provincial capital Tirin Kot to shop for the upcoming Eid holidays, he said, blaming the blast on the "enemies of Afghanistan" -- a term that most often refers to Taliban.
Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said it had provided medical assistance and evacuated the four wounded to its clinics.
The Taliban regularly plant bombs into roads, most often aiming to kill Afghan security forces or the international soldiers working with them.
The government of Wardak, near Kabul, said there had been a similar bomb blast against Isaf soldiers in the province and they had had suffered casualties.Juma Gul Himat, the provincial police chief, blamed the Taliban for the attack.
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