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Kandahar Lawmakers Urge International Forces: Don't Leave


Afghan policemen display confiscated arms belonging to insurgents after a suicide bomb attack followed by a gun battle between the insurgents and U.S. and Afghan forces at a building used by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Afghan policemen display confiscated arms belonging to insurgents after a suicide bomb attack followed by a gun battle between the insurgents and U.S. and Afghan forces at a building used by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Lawmakers fear region could be included in next phases of NATO troop pullout

Lawmakers from Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province are asking for international forces to stay put, at least for time being.

Speaking Tuesday in Kabul flanked by other members of the Afghan parliament from Kandahar, Khalid Pashtun said Monday's deadly attack in the provincial capital is proof NATO troops are still needed.

The combined assault and suicide bombing in Kandahar killed at least five people, including three security guards working for the United Nations' refugee agency. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and said a U.N. agency was the target.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is expected to announce which regions will be included into the second phase of the security transfer in the coming weeks. Pashtun and his colleagues from Kandahar province fear the region could be included in the next phases of the NATO troop pullout.

Kandahar remains a Taliban stronghold.

Elsewhere, two more NATO troops died in a roadside bombing Tuesday.

NATO said the troops were killed in eastern Afghanistan, but did not give any additional details.

Some information for this report was provided by AP.

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