Afghan Official Rejects Blame for U.N. Deaths

Afghan officials are balking at the suggestion that friendly fire by Afghan police, not suicide attackers, took the lives of four U.N. workers in October. On Monday, U.N. officials quoted from an independent report that described the insurgent attack on a guesthouse in central Kabul as a "confused situation" where Afghan police may have been responsible for the deaths. According to the report, during the incident it was difficult to tell the difference between the assailants and the victims. On Tuesday, Zemari Bashary, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Interior Ministry resoundingly rejected the idea that blood was on Afghan security officials' hands, saying, "We… do not accept this report; we in fact reject it."