Rocket Man
06-17-2007, 06:19 PM
Sun Jun 17, 1:14 PM
KABUL (AFP) - A suicide bomber destroyed a police bus in Kabul on Sunday, killing 35 people and wounding dozens in the deadliest attack in Afghanistan since the Taliban regime was toppled in 2001, police said.
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Separately a roadside bomb tore through a military vehicle in the southern province of Kandahar and killed three soldiers with the US-led coalition and an Afghan interpreter, the US military said.
Most of the dead in the blast in Kabul were instructors going to work at the city's police academy but bystanders were also killed, police said. The wounded included five foreigners.
The explosion turned the bus into a skeleton of blackened and mangled metal. Body parts and bits of human flesh were flung across a wide area. The Al-Qaeda-linked Taliban movement claimed responsibility.
"We have got 35 people martyred and 52 wounded," Kabul province police chief Esmatullah Dauladzai told AFP. "Those killed include mostly officers and civilians."
Among the wounded were two Japanese, a Korean and two Pakistani nationals, he said. This could not be immediately confirmed by the relevant embassies.
The city's criminal investigation department chief, Alishah Paktiawal, also said 35 people were killed.
"It is the work of terrorists, Al-Qaeda and murderers of the people," Paktiawal said.
It was the deadliest bombing in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban. In September 2002 a car bomb in Kabul killed around 30 people. It was also the fifth suicide blast in two days with one in the capital on Friday killing three Afghan labourers.
"Our investigations indicate that it was a suicide bombing carried out by an individual inside the bus. He was seen by witnesses wearing black clothes and was in the bus," Dauladzai said.
The Taliban said the attacker had infiltrated the police on the orders of one of the group's most senior commanders, Jalaluddin Haqqani.
"Under his direct orders, today he strapped explosives on his body and exploded himself inside the police bus," spokesman Saluhuddin Ayobi told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.
The blast was in a crowded part of the city centre. Two nearby minibuses were damaged. Sirens of ambulances were heard across Kabul as the wounded were ferried to hospitals.
"When I arrived you could see dead and wounded lying everywhere," said one young man who gave his name only as Abbas. "Many of them were torn into pieces. Many of them were headless and others had no legs or arms."
President Hamid Karzai led the condemnation saying "such unhuman and un-Islamic acts" by could not stop Afghanistan moving towards stability.
The attack occurred hours before the European Union officially took over from Germany a project to train Afghanistan's fledgling police forces.
At the handover ceremony, Interior Minister Ahmad Zarah Moqbel paid tribute to the dead men, whom he said were "heroes who wanted to serve this country."
He said the insurgency was rooted outside of Afghanistan. "The enemies are infiltrating our land," he said without making it clear if he was talking about Pakistan or Iran, both accused of a role in helping the Taliban.
He rejected suggestions the insurgency was beginning to bear similarities to the conflict in Iraq. "The Afghan people are determined to bring stability and security to the country," he said.
In another blast similar to scores carried out by Taliban, a bomb killed three soldiers and an Afghan interpreter near Kandahar city Sunday, the coalition said. It did not release the nationalities of the foreign soldiers.
The strike took to nearly 90 the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this year, most of them in combat.
More than 2,000 people have died in insurgency-linked violence, the majority rebels, with the insecurity undermining the fragile government's attempts to rebuild a nation devastated by nearly three decades of war.
KABUL (AFP) - A suicide bomber destroyed a police bus in Kabul on Sunday, killing 35 people and wounding dozens in the deadliest attack in Afghanistan since the Taliban regime was toppled in 2001, police said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Separately a roadside bomb tore through a military vehicle in the southern province of Kandahar and killed three soldiers with the US-led coalition and an Afghan interpreter, the US military said.
Most of the dead in the blast in Kabul were instructors going to work at the city's police academy but bystanders were also killed, police said. The wounded included five foreigners.
The explosion turned the bus into a skeleton of blackened and mangled metal. Body parts and bits of human flesh were flung across a wide area. The Al-Qaeda-linked Taliban movement claimed responsibility.
"We have got 35 people martyred and 52 wounded," Kabul province police chief Esmatullah Dauladzai told AFP. "Those killed include mostly officers and civilians."
Among the wounded were two Japanese, a Korean and two Pakistani nationals, he said. This could not be immediately confirmed by the relevant embassies.
The city's criminal investigation department chief, Alishah Paktiawal, also said 35 people were killed.
"It is the work of terrorists, Al-Qaeda and murderers of the people," Paktiawal said.
It was the deadliest bombing in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban. In September 2002 a car bomb in Kabul killed around 30 people. It was also the fifth suicide blast in two days with one in the capital on Friday killing three Afghan labourers.
"Our investigations indicate that it was a suicide bombing carried out by an individual inside the bus. He was seen by witnesses wearing black clothes and was in the bus," Dauladzai said.
The Taliban said the attacker had infiltrated the police on the orders of one of the group's most senior commanders, Jalaluddin Haqqani.
"Under his direct orders, today he strapped explosives on his body and exploded himself inside the police bus," spokesman Saluhuddin Ayobi told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.
The blast was in a crowded part of the city centre. Two nearby minibuses were damaged. Sirens of ambulances were heard across Kabul as the wounded were ferried to hospitals.
"When I arrived you could see dead and wounded lying everywhere," said one young man who gave his name only as Abbas. "Many of them were torn into pieces. Many of them were headless and others had no legs or arms."
President Hamid Karzai led the condemnation saying "such unhuman and un-Islamic acts" by could not stop Afghanistan moving towards stability.
The attack occurred hours before the European Union officially took over from Germany a project to train Afghanistan's fledgling police forces.
At the handover ceremony, Interior Minister Ahmad Zarah Moqbel paid tribute to the dead men, whom he said were "heroes who wanted to serve this country."
He said the insurgency was rooted outside of Afghanistan. "The enemies are infiltrating our land," he said without making it clear if he was talking about Pakistan or Iran, both accused of a role in helping the Taliban.
He rejected suggestions the insurgency was beginning to bear similarities to the conflict in Iraq. "The Afghan people are determined to bring stability and security to the country," he said.
In another blast similar to scores carried out by Taliban, a bomb killed three soldiers and an Afghan interpreter near Kandahar city Sunday, the coalition said. It did not release the nationalities of the foreign soldiers.
The strike took to nearly 90 the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this year, most of them in combat.
More than 2,000 people have died in insurgency-linked violence, the majority rebels, with the insecurity undermining the fragile government's attempts to rebuild a nation devastated by nearly three decades of war.