Kabul blast kills 24 as insurgency intensifies
Kabul blast kills 24 as insurgency intensifies
By Rachel Morarjee in Kabul
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Published: June 18 2007 03:00 | Last updated: June 18 2007 03:00
A powerful blast tore through a police bus in central Kabul yesterday, killing at least 24 people, including civilians, and wounding many others.
It was one of the worst bomb attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001 and marked a jump in the ferocity of the insurgency.
The rush-hour explosion, near the capital's police headquarters, could be felt across Kabul. The attack scattered human remains and reduced the bus to a blackened frame.
General Ali Shah Paktiawal, the head of the police criminal branch in Kabul, initially said 35 people had died, but officials later revised the figure down to 24. The presidential palace said 22 of the dead were police officers.
Taliban rebels claimed responsibility for the attack, which represented a powerful blow outside their traditional strongholds in the south and east.
Western intelligence contacts said the attackers might have used sophisticated technology - seen most recently in Iraq - that can allow insurgents to target their bombs in a more precise and deadly fashion.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said a rebel suicide bomber, named Mullah Asim Abdul Rahman, caused the blast. Mr Rahman, 23, was from Kabul province, said Mr Ahmadi, according to a report by the Associated Press news agency.
Officials were trying to determine whether the explosion, which happened in the front of the bus, was actually caused by a suicide attacker or by a bomb that had been planted. The Taliban claim could not be verified. But, if true, it would be the fifth suicide attack in Afghanistan in three days. Yesterday's bombing was the second in the capital in as many days. Four civilians were killed by a suicide blast in a busy residential district on Saturday.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the latest attack, calling it an attempt to block the training of Afghanistan's fledgling US-backed police force. The bus had been filled with police instructors, said witnesses.
A civilian bus, also damaged in the blast, had been just in front of the police vehicle when the bomb exploded, and a police officer at the scene said its position might have acted as a shield and prevented other civiliancasualties.
By Rachel Morarjee in Kabul
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Published: June 18 2007 03:00 | Last updated: June 18 2007 03:00
A powerful blast tore through a police bus in central Kabul yesterday, killing at least 24 people, including civilians, and wounding many others.
It was one of the worst bomb attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001 and marked a jump in the ferocity of the insurgency.
The rush-hour explosion, near the capital's police headquarters, could be felt across Kabul. The attack scattered human remains and reduced the bus to a blackened frame.
General Ali Shah Paktiawal, the head of the police criminal branch in Kabul, initially said 35 people had died, but officials later revised the figure down to 24. The presidential palace said 22 of the dead were police officers.
Taliban rebels claimed responsibility for the attack, which represented a powerful blow outside their traditional strongholds in the south and east.
Western intelligence contacts said the attackers might have used sophisticated technology - seen most recently in Iraq - that can allow insurgents to target their bombs in a more precise and deadly fashion.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said a rebel suicide bomber, named Mullah Asim Abdul Rahman, caused the blast. Mr Rahman, 23, was from Kabul province, said Mr Ahmadi, according to a report by the Associated Press news agency.
Officials were trying to determine whether the explosion, which happened in the front of the bus, was actually caused by a suicide attacker or by a bomb that had been planted. The Taliban claim could not be verified. But, if true, it would be the fifth suicide attack in Afghanistan in three days. Yesterday's bombing was the second in the capital in as many days. Four civilians were killed by a suicide blast in a busy residential district on Saturday.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the latest attack, calling it an attempt to block the training of Afghanistan's fledgling US-backed police force. The bus had been filled with police instructors, said witnesses.
A civilian bus, also damaged in the blast, had been just in front of the police vehicle when the bomb exploded, and a police officer at the scene said its position might have acted as a shield and prevented other civiliancasualties.
posted by Carlos T Mock @ 7:37 AM
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