International   

35 killed in Kabul blast

— Photo: AFP

TERROR IN KABUL: Investigators look for clues at the site of a suicide bomb attack in Kabul on Sunday. The blast, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility, killed 35 persons.

Kabul: The deadliest insurgent attack since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 destroyed a bus full of police instructors at Kabul's busiest transportation hub Sunday, killing 35 people and wounding 52, officials said.

The enormous suicide blast, which raised the spectre of an increase in Iraq-style bombings with heavy casualties, was at least the fourth attack against a bus carrying Afghan police or army soldiers in Kabul in the last year. The blast sheared the vehicle's metal sides and roof off, leaving only a charred skeleton.

"Never in my life have I heard such a sound," said Ali Jawad, a 48-year-old selling phone cards nearby. "A big fireball followed. I saw blood and a decapitated man thrown out of the bus."

Condemning the attack, President Hamid Karzai said the "enemies of Afghanistan" were trying to stop the development of Afghan security forces, a key component of the US-NATO strategy of eventually handing over security responsibilities to the Afghan government, allowing Western forces to leave.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said a Taliban suicide-bomber named, Mullah Asim Abdul Rahman, caused the blast. Ahmadi called an Associated Press reporter from an undisclosed location. His claim could not be verified.

Zemeri Bashary, the spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said late Sunday that 35 were killed and 52 wounded in the blast. Karzai's office said 22 police instructors died, indicating that 13 of the dead were civilians.

Hours earlier, the Interior Minister and a Hospital Director revised the initial death toll of 35 down to 24, but a government official in the Health Ministry said the government may have been trying to downplay the severity of the attack. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The thunderous explosion was the fifth suicide attack in Afghanistan in three days and comes amid a sharp spike in violence.

In the south, a roadside bomb in Kandahar province killed three members of the US-led coalition and an Afghan interpreter. The soldiers' nationalities were not released, but many in the coalition are American.

At least one person survived the 8:10 a.m. bus blast. Nasir Ahmad, 22, a janitor at the police training academy, was sitting in the back of the bus when the bomb exploded.

Speaking from a hospital bed where he was recovering from wounds to his face and hands, Ahmad said the bus had been filled with police instructors.

At the entrance to the hospital, a blue plastic trash can overflowed with the bloodied shoes and sandals of victims.

Interior Minister, Zarar Ahmad Muqbal, said initial indications were that a suicide bomber boarded the bus as it stopped to pick up police instructors at an open-air bus station in central Kabul. Such a suicide attack would represent a sizable jump in lethality compared to more typical Taliban suicide bombings, which often kill far fewer people.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

35 killed in Kabul blast
Sri Lanka launches last phase of resettlement
U.S., Israel back new Palestinian regime
French Socialists face electoral rout
BAE faces fresh kickbacks charge
Koirala asks Gyanendra to voluntarily abdicate
Fatwa against magazine
Shilpa Shetty receives Silver Star Award for increasing AIDS awareness

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu