Blast in Afghan sports field kills around 50
Around 50 people were killed and 60 others injured when a suicide blast ripped through crowds gathered to watch a volleyball game in eastern Afghanistan, as Afghan parliament yesterday overwhelmingly approved a security agreement allowing US and Nato troops to remain in the country.
"The suicide attacker was on a motorcycle, he detonated himself in the middle of a volleyball match," Attaullah Fazli, deputy governor of Paktika province, told AFP
"A lot of people including some provincial officials and the police chief were there. About 50 people have been killed, and 60 injured, a lot of them seriously."
No one claimed responsibility of the attacks till filing this report.
The blast came hours after the lower house approved the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) and the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) bills.
The deals provide legal protection for troops serving under a new Nato mission due to begin after combat operations formally end on 31 December. The bills were passes by 152 votes to five.
The agreements still need to be ratified by the Afghan upper house.
The approval comes a day after US officials said their troops would still be able to target the Taliban in 2015.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had signed the agreements with the US and Nato in September, after his predecessor Hamid Karzai refused.
Nato has been steadily withdrawing troops, from a level of about 50,000 in early 2014 - mostly from the US.
The total number of troops in the new Nato-led mission will be about 12,000. There will also be a separate US-led force dealing with the remnants of al-Qaeda.
It emerged on Saturday, however, that President Barack Obama has approved guidelines to allow US troops to fight the Taliban and provide air support for Afghan missions.
There was reportedly no mention of the new guidelines as the lower house approved the security deals.
Comments