Afghanistan Boosts Security for U.N. Staffers After Attack

The United Nations announced Thursday that its staff would travel with armed government escorts in southern Afghanistan, after gunmen fired at a mine-clearing vehicle and wounded two Afghan workers.

The attack occurred on the main road between the eastern towns of Gardez and Khowst, said Maki Shinohara, a U.N. refugee agency spokeswoman. The mine clearers were working with the U.N. in the area, Shinohara said.

The attack was one of many ambushes in recent weeks, one of which killed a worker with the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Also on Thursday, a British soldier was wounded in Kabul, the capital, when an Afghan man threw a grenade at a British peacekeeping base, a spokeswoman for the multinational force said.