Bomber kills 14 in Afghanistan
Fighting claims 30 more Taliban
Ap, Afp, Gardez/Kandahar
A suicide bomber on foot detonated himself in a crowded market in eastern Afghanistan yesterday just after a US convoy drove by, killing at least 14 people and wounding 31, officials and witnesses said. The attack in the city of Gardez damaged around 30 shops, shattered windows and destroyed the stores closest to the explosion. Three vehicles were damaged, including a taxi blasted by dozens of pieces of shrapnel. Witnesses said a US convoy appeared to be the target, and Maj. William Mitchell, a spokesman for Nato's International Security Assistance Force, said there were initial reports of injuries to Isaf soldiers, though he didn't have further details. Six people died at the scene of the blast, police said. Another eight later died at a hospital, said Ghulam Hazrat Majedi, the doctor in charge of the Gardez hospital. He said two of the 31 people injured were in a critical condition. Afghan soldiers donated blood for the wounded. Nasar Ahmad, a 30-year-old shopkeeper whose three cousins were seriously injured in the blast, said he saw a US convoy driving through the city just before the explosion. "I heard a strong blast and then saw a fireball go up," Ahmad said from Gardez' hospital. "For 10 minutes I couldn't hear and I didn't know where I was. I saw a lot of people injured lying in the street." Shah Mohammad, 19, said everyone killed or wounded by the blast were Afghan civilians. "The convoy had already passed when the attack happened," he said. The blast in Gardez comes one day after a suicide bomber in northern Afghanistan killed three German soldiers and seven civilians. More than 30 rebel fighters were killed in the southern province of Ghazni early Sunday in a sweep involving foreign forces, provincial police commander Alishah Ahmadzai told AFP. The foreign militaries could not confirm their involvement. Isaf announced in a statement meanwhile that "a significant number of Taliban extremist leaders were successfully targeted and killed in a precision air strike" in the south late Saturday. It did not give the location of the strike. His toll could not be independently verified. Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) and the separate US-led coalition said they did not have information about the operation. Eleven other rebels were captured and 18 wounded in the sweep, which moved through villages along a key highway in the province, Ahmadzai said.
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