| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| 4 Afghans killed in blast meant for NATO |
| 2004-06-16 |
| An explosion in the northern Afghan town of Kunduz killed two Afghan children and two Afghan men on Wednesday, missing the Nato peacekeepers who were apparently its intended target, officials said. The blast was possibly triggered by a remote controlled device as a vehicle from a Nato Provincial Reconstruction Team passed along a crowded road in the centre of the city, Afghan officials said. The past 24 hours have also seen the killing of a senior provincial official in southern Afghanistan, an attack that coincided with a visit to Washington by President Hamid Karzai for talks with US President George W Bush to discuss the battle against Islamic militants and upcoming elections. An Afghan driver of the reconstruction team vehicle was among those killed, General Mohammad Dawood, the senior military commander in Kunduz, told reporters. No German troops from the team in Kunduz were in the car at the time of the blast. "Initial reports indicate that four people have been killed in this explosion," Dawood said. Nine Afghans, several of them children, were wounded, residents said. No peacekeepers were hurt, said a spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force. Kunduz Governor Mohmmad Omar said an explosive device was placed under a kiosk in Wednesday’s attack and the reconstruction team car could have been the target. Wednesday’s blast came hours after a rocket hit a military base near the main base of the Nato-led peacekeepers in the capital, Kabul, on Tuesday evening, wounding an Afghan soldier. A local employee of an international aid agency was wounded on Wednesday in a blast in front of its office in Faizabad, capital of the province of the same name, a Western aid worker said, without giving more details. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |