Dozens killed in rare Afghanistan attack / CNN

photo: photo: AP / Musadeq Sadeq

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Twin suicide bombings killed dozens Tuesday in Afghanistan, most of them in a mass-scale sectarian attack on Shiite worshippers unlike anything the country has seen in its decade-long war.
The terrorist attacks in the cities of Kabul and Mazar-e Sharif killed 58 people and wounded scores of others, officials said.
A suicide bomber detonated a device at a Shiite shrine in Kabul as worshippers were marking the Shiite holy day of Ashura, Afghan Health Ministry spokesman Kargar Norughli said. Fifty-four people were killed and 150 were wounded, said Afghan Health Ministry spokesman Kargar Norughli.
Four people were killed by an explosion at a roundabout on a busy street in Mazar-e Sharif, the provincial capital of Afghanistan's northern Balkh province, police official Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai said. Another 21 were wounded in that attack.
"The enemies tried to spread fear in this important holiday in the city," Ahmadzai said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks. The Taliban denied involvement.
Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, a leading Shiite member of Parliament, blamed "foreign criminals."
The attacks showed "that those who claim to be defenders of Islam" are liars, and showed "how far from humanity they are," he said.

The attackers committed "these crimes for the interest of those foreigners who are controlling them so that they could create hatred among Muslims in Afghanistan," he said.
In Iraq, where large scale sectarian attacks have occurred frequently, government officials and analysts have said the goal of extremists was to foment sectarian tensions.
The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan issued a statement Tuesday condemning the "the twin suicide bombings that killed dozens of worshippers, many of them women and children."
The bombs detonated nearly simultaneously, the statement said.
Afghanistan has seen attacks on mosques. In 2006, rioting broke out between Shiites and Sunnis at an Ashura festival in Herat, leading to several deaths. But the country has not seen sectarian attacks of the scale that occurred Tuesday.
The attacks came a day after an international conference in Bonn, Germany, addressed the state of affairs in Afghanistan, and Afghan officials pushed for international support and contributions.
The U.S. Embassy statement Tuesday vowed that the United States "remains undeterred in standing with the Afghan people against the scourge of terrorism in our mutual aim of promoting peace and prosperity."

Gen. John Allen, commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said, "An attack against Ashura pilgrims on one of the holiest of days in the Islamic calendar is an attack against Islam itself, and we denounce and condemn these atrocities in the strongest of terms. Our prayers and deepest sympathies are with the families and loved ones of those innocent civilians killed or injured in today's horrific attacks."
Ambassador Simon Gass, NATO's senior civilian representative in Afghanistan, called the attacks "horrifying."
"That men, women and children are killed and injured on Ashura is particularly tragic," he said.
Ashura commemorates the martyrdom of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Hussein's death in battle in Karbala, Iraq, in 680, is one of the events that helped create the schism between Sunnis and Shiites, the two main Muslim religious movements. Shiites are a minority presence in Afghanistan, which is predominantly Sunni.

At the Bonn conference on Monday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned that the Taliban could make a comeback as the country struggles with security a decade after a U.S.-led coalition ousted the hardline militia from power.
"If we lose this fight, we are threatened with a return to a situation like that before September 11, 2001," Karzai said.
In an e-mailed statement to journalists, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said he condemned Tuesday's attacks. He accused NATO forces of playing a role in the attacks "to sow mistrust and hatred among Muslims so they can stay longer."
Karzai, at Monday's conference, said that though there had been progress over the past 10 years, stability remains a distant goal.
"Our shared goal of a stable, self-reliant Afghanistan is far from being achieved," he said.

________________________________

RELATED NEWS

• Afghan police say 48 killed in Kabul bombing - Atlanta Journal
• Recent major attacks in the Afghan capital of Kabul-The Washington Post
• Afghan Police Say Almost 50 Killed in Two Separate, Rare Bombings on Shiites-Fox News

»»  read more

NATO Convoy Attacked in Afghanistan, Killing 13 Americans

Oct. 29, 2011: US soldiers walk at the site of a suicide car bomber in Kabul, Afghanistan

KABUL,Afghanistan- A U.S. official says all 13 NATO service members killed in a suicide bombing in the Afghan capital were American troops.
The official confirmed the nationalities shortly after NATO issued a statement saying that 13 of its forces were killed in Saturday's blast. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which also killed four Afghans, including a policeman.
Oct. 29, 2011: US soliders, right, carry a body from the site of a suicide car bomber in Kabul, Afghanistan.
A suicide car bomber struck a NATO convoy on the outskirts of Kabul on Saturday.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred near Darulaman Palace, the bombed-out seat of former Afghan kings on the southwest outskirts of the capital. It was the deadliest of two attacks in the day that targeted either the U.S.-led coalition or Afghan government offices in the country.
"Initial reports indicate that there has been a vehicle-borne IED attack today against a coalition vehicle in Kabul," NATO said in a statement, using military terminology for a car bomb. The alliance said "several" of its service members were among the casualties of the attack, but provided no other details.
The Afghan Ministry of Interior said three Afghan civilians and one Afghan police were killed. The Taliban claim came shortly after the attack in a text message to media outlets.
An Associated Press reporter on the scene said that NATO and Afghan forces had sealed off the area. Two NATO helicopters landed to airlift casualties. The back end of a NATO bus appeared to have been blown apart and was turned into a charred shell.
Earlier Saturday, a female suicide bomber blew herself up as she tried to attack a local government office in the capital of Kunar province, a hotbed of militancy in northeast Afghanistan along the Pakistan border.
Abdul Sabor Allayar, deputy provincial police chief, said the guards outside the government's intelligence office in Asad Abad became suspicious of the woman and started shooting, at which point she detonated her explosives.
Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces conducted operations earlier this month, killing more than 100 insurgents in an effort to curb violence in rugged areas of Kunar where the coalition and Afghan government have a light footprint.
Farther south along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Afghan and coalition forces captured two leaders of the Haqqani network and two other suspected insurgents in Sarobi district of Paktika province, the coalition said.
Haqqani fighters, who are affiliated with the Taliban and al-Qaida, are heavily rooted in Paktika and neighboring Paktia and Khost provinces.
One of the captured leaders provided insurgent fighters with funding, weapons, supplies and hideouts, and the other coordinated attacks against Afghan forces, the coalition said.

| Associated Press

Video Watch

»»  read more

Dilawar Senior Leader of Haqqani Network Killed in Afghan Airstrike

MUSA KHEL, Afghanistan –  A senior leader of the Haqqani network, the Afghan militant group closely tied to Al Qaeda, was killed during an airstrike in Afghanistan, security officials said Wednesday.
Dilawar, who was only known by one name, and two of his associates were killed in the Musa Khel district of Khost province, about 155 miles south of Kabul on Tuesday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed.
He coordinated numerous attacks against Afghan forces and helped move weapons along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, according to ISAF.
Dilawar, who was associated with both Al Qaeda and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, also assisted in the movement of foreign fighters.
His death comes exactly one week after the capture of Haji Mali Khan, Afghanistan's lead Haqqani network leader, who was seized in the Jani Khel district of Paktiya.
In a statement ISAF, which stated that no civilians were harmed during the airstrike, said, "Prior to Mali Khan's capture by the combined Afghan and coalition security force, he worked closely with Dilawar planning attacks throughout the area. Specifically, Dilawar had just conducted an ambush on Afghan forces in Paktiya province last month."
"The death of Dilawar marks another significant milestone in the disruption of the Haqqani network in Afghanistan," the statement added.
The Haqqani network is regarded by American officials as an irredeemably violent militant and criminal network tied to Al Qaeda and supported by the Pakistani intelligence service.
Washington blames the Haqqani network for bringing a new level of violence to the Afghan insurgency and it is at the center of the deteriorating U.S. relationship with Pakistan. U.S. officials suspect the network was behind last month's 19-hour siege which targeted the U.S. embassy and ISAF headquarters in Kabul.
So far in 2011, security forces conducted more than 530 operations to disrupt the network's activities in eastern Afghanistan, leading to the death of 20 leaders and the capture of more than 1,400 suspected Haqqani insurgents.

| NewsCore

»»  read more