kaboom!on Tuesday as it sped through a crowded market in Afghanistan's eastern province of Paktika
...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo...
, killing at least 89 people, officials said, one of the most violent attacks in the country in a year.
The huge kaboom took place not far from the mostly non-existent border with Pakistain's North
Wazoo region, where the military has been attacking hideouts of the Taliban in the past few weeks, prompting turbans to retreat towards Afghanistan."The number of victims may increase," said General Zahir Azimi, a defence ministry front man.
The attack comes at an uneasy time in Afghanistan as the country recounts votes from a disputed presidential election which the Taliban have vowed to disrupt.
But the Taliban distanced themselves from Tuesday's attack.
The movement's leader have ordered turbans not to target civilians. "The truth behind this attack will become clear after an investigation, but we clearly announce that it was not done by the Mujahedeen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban front man, said in a statement. "The Mujahedeen do not conduct such attacks and such attacks do not bring any benefit to them."
A local deputy police chief, Nissar Ahmad Abdulrahimzai, told Rooters that police had been tipped about the car and were chasing it when it went
kaboom!. "The kaboom was so big it destroyed many shops.
Dozens of people are trapped under the roofs," Mohammad Raza Kharoti, the district governor, told Rooters. "The number of maimed will rise to more than 100 and the number of those martyred will also increase."
In Kabul, a remote control bomb concealed by a roadside killed two employees of President Hamid
Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a
Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
's media office and maimed five, police said. The Taliban grabbed credit.
The attacks took place as foreign troops are gradually withdrawing from the country. The United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
said last week civilian casualties jumped by almost a quarter in the first half of this year as hostilities escalate.