AFGHANISTAN: Forign Tourists Ambushed

Taliban militants attacked a group of 12 American and European tourists escorted by an Afghan army convoy in western Herat province on Thursday, leaving at least seven people wounded as the insurgents step up nationwide attacks.

The tourists -- eight British, three Americans and one German national -- were ambushed by Taliban gunmen in the restive district of Chesht-e-Sharif, while en route from the neighbouring provinces of Bamiyan and Ghor.

It is unclear why they were travelling overland at a time when Western embassies typically warn their citizens against all travel in Afghanistan, citing threats of kidnapping and attacks.

"The foreign tourists -- three Americans, six Britons, two Scots and one German -- were travelling with an Afghan army convoy when they were ambushed by the Taliban in Chesht-e-Sharif," said Jilani Farhad, the spokesman for Herat's governor.

He said the insurgents had been repelled and the foreigners were being escorted to Herat city, adding that at least six foreigners and their Afghan driver were left wounded. The attack comes as Taliban militants intensify their annual summer offensive after a brief lull during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, which ended in early July.

Highways in Afghanistan passing through insurgency-prone areas have become exceedingly dangerous, with the Taliban and other armed groups frequently kidnapping or killing travellers. But that has not stopped some tourists, including foreigners, from travelling to provinces such as Bamiyan, endowed with stunning landscapes but wedged between volatile provinces prone to the Taliban insurgency.

Bamiyan, famous for empty hillside niches that once sheltered giant Buddha statues that were blown up by the Taliban, is at the centre of Afghan efforts to boost tourism revenue. The United States has warned its citizens in Afghanistan of a "very high" kidnapping risk after an American citizen narrowly escaped abduction in the heart of Kabul.

The latest attack follows a Taliban truck bombing on Monday at a hotel for foreigners in Kabul, which triggered a seven-hour gun and grenade assault that highlighted growing insecurity in the city.

The guests and staff of the Northgate hotel escaped unharmed, but one policeman was killed after the suicide truck bomber paved the way for two other armed insurgents to enter the heavily guarded facility near Kabul airport.

Foreigners are also increasingly being targeted as the conflict escalates. American journalist David Gilkey and his Afghan translator were killed in June while travelling with an Afghan army unit that came under fire in southern Helmand province. Judith D'Souza, a 40-year-old Indian charity worker, was rescued in late July, more than a month after she was taken at gunpoint near her residence in the heart of Kabul.

AFGHANISTAN: Afghanistan's Bamiyan On Frontline Of Warzone Tourism

Trudging halfway up a jagged goat trail, guide Mohammad Ibrahim extolled the panoramic view -- a vast, ancient landscape of russet-hued cliffs that is on the frontline of Afghan efforts to jumpstart warzone tourism.

Bamiyan famous for empty hillside niches that once sheltered giant Buddha statues that were blown up by the Taliban -- is a rare oasis of tranquility that has largely been spared the wrenching conflict that afflicts the rest of Afghanistan.

Once a caravan stop along the fabled Silk Road, the central Afghan city was recently named this year's cultural capital of South Asia, igniting hopes of restoring its place on the global tourism map.

One obstacle, however, remains: Bamiyan is hemmed in by war.

Figuring out how to get to the ancient city -- endowed with stunning landscapes but wedged between volatile provinces -- itself is a challenge.

But that doesn't stop Ibrahim, head of the local tourism association with a penchant for Indiana Jones-style straw hats, from making his sales pitch.

"Bamiyan has caves with the world's oldest oil paintings, the country's first national park and during winter it's home to Afghanistan's only ski slopes," he said, sounding like a walking tourism brochure.

Hiking up to the ruined ramparts of Shahr-e-Gholghola -- the City of Screams, which was destroyed by Genghis Khan in the 13th century -- Ibrahim stopped to catch his breath and picked up a spent bullet shell from the ground, one of many Soviet-era casings that litter the windswept trail overlooking the sandstone cliffs and snow-clad pyramids of the Hindu Kush range.

"Bamiyan is the envy of Afghanistan -- it has peace," he said.

Pre-civil war days are a subject of whispered nostalgia in Bamiyan, when it wielded control over strategic mountain passes connecting trade routes from India, China and Persia and the local markets swarmed with stoned backpackers hopping overland on the so-called "hippie trail".

It has failed to revive the heyday of tourism after decades of war, including the Taliban's 1996-2001 reign when they destroyed two massive Buddha statues carved into sandstone cliffs, labelling them an affront to Islam -- an act globally condemned as "cultural terrorism".

Reliable statistics are hard to come by but officials admit that the number of foreign tourists has fallen off a cliff in recent post-Taliban years as pessimism abounds about the state of Afghanistan, trapped in a quagmire of escalating violence.