Massive blast rocks Kabul, kills 8

Wed Jan 12, 2011 4:46AM

Afghan investigators inspect the site of a bomb attack in Kabul on January 12, 2011. At least eight Afghan security officers have lost their lives while twenty-nine others have been wounded after a massive explosion rocked the Afghan capital, Kabul.


The attack took place during the morning rush hour on Wednesday as a motorcycle bomb targeted a minibus carrying Afghan security personnel near the parliament building in western Kabul, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The powerful shock wave released by the blast also shattered windowpanes of a number of surrounding buildings.

Police cordoned off the area after the incident and launched a search operation to arrest the miscreants.

The bomb blast came a month after Taliban militants attacked a bus of Afghan army officers in Kabul. Five people were killed and nine others wounded in that assault.

Roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are by far the most lethal weapon Taliban militants use against Afghan forces, foreign troops, as well as civilians.

Violence in Afghanistan has spiked to its highs since October 2001 when Washington began the US-led invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow Taliban militants.

FACTBOX-Security developments in Afghanistan, Jan 12
12 Jan 2011

Source: reuters // Reuters


Jan 12 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 0700 on Wednesday.


KABUL - A suicide bomber on a motorbike killed at least two people and wounded up to 36 more in an attack near the country's parliament in Kabul, government officials said. [ID:mSGE70B02T]

FARAH - A bomb killed two Afghan civilians on Tuesday in the Posht-e-Rod district of western Farah province, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

GHAZNI - Foreign troops killed "several" insurgents on Tuesday during an operation in Andar district of Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul, ISAF said.

HELMAND - ISAF troops killed two insurgents in southern Helmand province on Tuesday, ISAF said. One insurgent was killed in Sangin district and one in Musa Qala district. (Compiled by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Miral Fahmy) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan) (If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to newsfeedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)


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Bomb kills 6 civilians in southern Afghanistan Upadated on: 16 Jan 11 03:50 PM


KANDAHAR: A roadside bomb killed six civilians and wounded three in the Sangin district of Afghanistan's violent southern Helmand province, the provincial governor's office said on Sunday.

Sangin district is one of the main battlefields in the intensifying fight between Afghan and NATO-led forces and Taliban insurgents in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar.

Six people, including a woman and child, were killed when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb planted in a dirt road in Sangin on Saturday, said Dawood Ahmadi, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand.
Violence across Afghanistan is at its worst since U.S.-backed Afghan forces overthrew the hardline Islamist Taliban in 2001 after they refused to hand over al Qaeda militants, including Osama bin Laden, after the September 11 attacks on the United States. A recent string of attacks around the country has helped to dispel a belief in a winter lull in fighting. While insurgents normally target Afghan and foreign troops, civilians often bear the brunt of the attacks as they become caught in the crossfire.

The United Nations has said 2,412 civilians were killed and 3,803 wounded between January and October last year -- up 20 percent from 2009.

On January 7, a suicide bomber killed 17 people, including 16 civilians, and wounded 21 others, inside a public bathhouse in neighbouring Kandahar province, the country's worst attack in nearly six months.

A record 711 foreign troops were also killed in 2010, according to monitoring website www.iCasualties.org.

Afghan forces have been hit even harder. The government has said 1,292 Afghan police, 821 Afghan soldiers and 5,225 insurgents were killed.

Separately, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on Sunday Afghan and foreign forces had killed two insurgents in an operation against a Taliban leader in Wardak province, west of Kabul. Two suspected insurgents were also detained in the operation which took place on Saturday. AGENCIES


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UPDATE 1-Bomb kills 9 wedding guests in Afghanistan16 Jan 2011

Source: reuters // Reuters


* Violence across Afghanistan at worst since 2001

* NATO-led force says kills "numerous" insurgents

(Recasts with new bomb; changes dateline, previous KANDAHAR)

By Zekaria Nasiri

PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan, Jan 16 (Reuters) - A roadside bomb destroyed a car carrying nine people to a wedding in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing everyone inside including one child, the provincial governor said.

The previous day, six civilians were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Helmand province and another six died after an airstrike by foreign forces in mountainous eastern Kunar, local officials said.

Three children were among the dead in the airborne attack on two houses in the Kodagai area which straddles Kunar's Dangam and Shigal districts, Sultan Sediqi, a member of the provincial council, told Reuters.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement that an air raid in Kunar's Dangam district had killed "numerous" insurgents, after they were identified as an imminent threat to ground forces.

It was not clear if this was the incident referred to by Sediqi.

When asked about the allegations of civilian casualties, a spokeswoman for NATO-led forces said they had not carried out any operations in Shigal and those killed by the air operation in Dangam had been "positively identified as insurgents".

Violence across Afghanistan is at its worst since the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban government, with the insurgency spreading rapidly in previously peaceful areas such as the north, and civilian and military casualties at record levels.

A recent string of attacks around the country has helped to dispel expectations of a winter lull in fighting. While insurgents normally target Afghan and foreign troops, civilians often bear the brunt of the attacks as they are caught in the crossfire.

Sunday's blast in Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province, which lies on the main highway connecting Kabul to the north, killed six women and two men along with the child, said provincial governor Abdul Majid.

The roadside bomb in the violent Sangin district of southern Helmand province killed six people on Saturday the provincial governor's spokesman, Dawood Ahmadi, said on Sunday.

Sangin district is one of the main battlefields in the intensifying fight between Afghan and NATO-led forces on one side and the Taliban on the other, in the group's southern strongholds of Helmand and Kandahar province.

The United Nations has said 2,412 civilians were killed and 3,803 wounded between January and October last year -- up 20 percent from 2009.

On Jan. 7, a suicide bomber killed 17 people, including 16 civilians, and wounded 21 others, inside a public bathhouse in neighbouring Kandahar province, the country's worst attack in nearly six months.

A record 711 foreign troops were also killed in 2010, according to monitoring website www.iCasualties.org.

Afghan forces have been hit even harder. The government has said 1,292 Afghan police, 821 Afghan soldiers and 5,225 insurgents were killed.

(Additional reporting by Ismail Sameem in Kandahar, Mohammad Hamed in Kunduz and Hamid Shalizi in Kabul; Writing by Matt Robinson, editing by Emma Graham-Harrison)

(For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan))


(If you have a query or comment about this story, send ane-mail to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)


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UPDATE 1-Bomb blast kills 13 Afghan civilians in southeast19 Jan 2011

Source: reuters // Reuters


KABUL, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Thirteen Afghan civilians were killed when their motorised rickshaw hit a roadside bomb in southeastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, officials said, the latest casualties of escalating violence in the near decade-long war.

Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst level since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 with record casualties on all sides of the conflict and a raging insurgency that has shown no signs of abating.

The latest incident took place in the Khoshamand district of Paktika, a volatile province bordering Pakistan.

Thirteen villagers were travelling to the district centre for medical treatment when the bomb struck, the provincial governor's spokesman, Mukhlis Afghan said.

The Interior Ministry condemned the attack in a statement and said women and children were among the dead.


Roadside bombs are by far the deadliest weapon deployed by insurgents in the war and are responsible for most of the casualties among international, Afghan troops as well as civilians.

Ordinary Afghans have borne the brunt of fighting as they became caught up in the crossfire. The United Nations said 2,412 civilians were killed and 3,803 others wounded in the first ten months of last year, a 20 percent increase compared to 2009.

Dozens of civilians have been killed this month alone.

Last year, a record 711 foreign troops were killed, according to monitoring website www.iCasualties.org, up from 521 in 2009.

Afghan security forces have been hit even harder than foreign troops. A total of 1,292 Afghan police and 821 Afghan soldiers were killed in 2010, according to the Afghan government.

The Afghan government also said 5,225 insurgents were killed last year.

(Reporting by Elyas Wahdat; Writing by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Miral Fahmy) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)