12 Afghans killed in strike on meeting

TAGAB VALLEY, Afghanistan – Rockets slammed into a market northeast of Kabul on Monday, killing 12 civilians but missing their presumed target: a meeting between France’s top general in Afghanistan and dozens of tribal elders and senior local officials.

The attack also wounded 38 people, 20 of them critically. The market was crowded with shoppers because Monday is bazaar day in Tagab, a sprawling town of mud brick fortresslike compounds and small fields along a river surrounded by the barren slopes and snowcapped peaks of the Hindu Kush mountain range.

Brig. Gen. Marcel Druart told The Associated Press that the meeting, known as a shura, continued despite the attack to show that the Taliban cannot disrupt NATO’s plans in a tense valley where both sides are competing for influence.

“The shura didn’t stop, and it was in my opinion very important,” Druart, who was unhurt, said at the NATO base in Nijrab, 5 miles north of Tagab.