Karzai Orders More Security to Protect Projects from Taliban Attack

VoA News: Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has ordered more security to protect development projects that have increasingly come under attack by insurgents.

President Karzai discussed ways to revive stalled projects during a meeting with his Cabinet on Monday.

The Taliban and other militants have attacked workers building roads, bridges and other infrastructure throughout Afghanistan.

The government said Monday that insurgents have killed 53 road construction workers and kidnapped 110 since 2005.

In one of the deadliest incidents, 36 workers and security guards were killed in an attack on a road construction site in the eastern province of Paktia in May.

The government said Monday that attacks on irrigation and dam projects have killed 30 workers in recent years. Militants also have killed nine telecommunications workers and abducted nine others.

The violence has halted construction on a road planned from Kabul to the eastern city of Jalalabad. A dam project in the western province of Herat has been suspended indefinitely.

Separately, police say a bomb blast killed two civilians Monday in a busy market in southern Afghanistan.

The blast occurred inside a scrap metal shop in the Gereshk district of Helmand province.