Kabul: A bomb attack targeted a group of lawmakers in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least 28 people, including five parliamentarians, officials said.
Death tolls varied widely in the confusion of the attack, which also wounded
dozens of school children. While, a high-ranking government official
said 64 people had died, another agency report put the death toll to 100 including six lawmakers.
The bomb blast went off outside a sugar factory in the northern
province of Baghlan as the lawmakers were about to go inside. The
blast struck school children, Afghan elders and government officials
who had gathered to greet the visiting delegation of 18 lawmakers
from the lower house, officials said.
The Ministry of Interior said at least 28 people were killed in
the blast, but a doctor at Baghlan's main hospital, Dr. Mohammad
Yousuf Fayez, said dozens of dead bodies may also have been left at
the blast site and collected by families, meaning they wouldn't have
been counted officially.
At least 42 school children were among 81 people wounded, Fayez
said.
``The children were standing on both sides of the street, and
were shaking the hands of the officials, then suddenly the explosion
happened,'' Fayez said.
President Hamid Karzai's office confirmed the deaths of at least five
parliamentarians.
``This heinous act of terrorism is against Islam and humanity and
I condemn it in the strongest possible terms,'' Karzai said in a
statement. ``It is the work of the enemies of peace and security in
Afghanistan.''
The attack is among the deadliest in Afghanistan since the 2001
U.S.-led invasion. Taliban bombers have killed regional governors in
the past, but never have militants killed so many high-ranking
officials in one attack.
A U.S. military spokesman said the blast was the same as those
often carried out by the Taliban. Lt. Col. David Accetta , who
condemned ``this kind of terrorist and criminal attack,'' said he
had no information indicating al-Qaida was behind the blast.
Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary confirmed the deaths
of 28 people. He said the lawmakers were part of parliament's
economic commission.
He blamed the attack on the ``enemy of Afghanistan, the enemy of
the people of Afghanistan,'' a term commonly used here to refer to
Taliban militants but that could also include other terrorist groups
like al-Qaida.
This year has been the deadliest in Afghanistan since the fall of
the Taliban. More than 5,700 people have been killed in
insurgency-related violence, according to an Associated Press count
based on figures from Western and Afghan officials.-AP
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