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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| At least 27 dead in Afghanistan mosque suicide blast |
| 2005-06-01 |
| A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, killing at least 27 people including the police chief of the capital Kabul, witnesses and officials told AFP. The blast occurred as prayers were offered for an Islamic cleric who was shot dead by suspected Taliban militants at the weekend, witnesses and an intelligence official said on Wednesday. An AFP correspondent at the scene said he saw "at least 27 dead bodies" at the Maulvi Abdul Rab mosque in central Kandahar, a city known as the birthplace of the ousted Taliban regime. "One man entered the mosque and blew himself up. The explosion killed more than 20 people and lot of people are injured. General Akram, police chief in Kabul, was also killed," the correspondent said. "There were some 50 to 60 people inside the mosque when the explosion occurred. This was a very big explosion and there is blood everywhere in the mosque and outside it," he said. "Human limbs are scattered all over the mosque compound." An intelligence official also confirmed that General Akram had died. Interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said "at least two dozen people" had died in the blast and a number of high ranking provincial and government officials were in the mosque at the time. "The blast took place around 9:00 am (0430 GMT) this morning during prayers for the religious leader. The exact number of casualties is not known yet but dozens have been killed and dozens have been injured," he told AFP. A police officer said the fate of the other officials caught up in the blast was unknown. Witnesses told the private Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency that a man in a military uniform entered the mosque and blew himself up. Afghanistan remains wracked by violence three and a half years after the fall of the ousted Islamic Taliban regime. More than 250 people, mostly militants, have died in recent months. The hardliners claimed responsibility for the killing on Sunday of Maulvi Abdullah Fayyaz, chief of Kandahar's Islamic Council and a close supporter of US-backed President Hamid Karzai. Two armed men on a motorcycle gunned down the cleric in restive Kandahar province, regarded as a Taliban hotbed. Fayyaz organized a meeting of other Afghan Islamic clerics in Kandahar last week in which the council of ulemas, or scholars, revoked the title of Amirul Mominine, the leader of all believers, given to fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. More than 18,000 coalition troops, including about 16,000 US forces, are in Afghanistan hunting Taliban remnants who, three years after the toppling of the extremist Islamic regime, are still waging a guerrilla-style insurgency. On Monday up to 16 militants and four police officers were killed in a series of attacks in southern Afghanistan. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #18 whether I am under fire or not is irelevant - the point is that sometimes the PEOPLE have to say enough is enough, right? 12 or 13 centuries of blaming others is mental illness on a national, nee, cultural scale, and to call them sickness les than it is doesn't make you more sensitive, just an enabler. FWIW I applaude those that have stepped up to the plate and risked all. Those that protest a Koran desecration they'd never known about, in a land they'll never see, by killing each other, are animals - less than human |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-06-01 19:26 |
| #17 I find it strange that Muslims under terrorist attack don't take the most elementary security precautions. In addition to the logistical and organization and financial difficulties in securing mosques and public events against terrorism, you also have the denial factor. Even with all they've been through I think many moslems can not bring themselves to believe that they could be attacked in a mosque by another Moslem. One reason for this disbelief is the preaching of their clergy. Another is the refusal of the country's leaders to take an firm position against terrorism and a firm position identifying the terrorists as moslems. |
| Posted by: mhw 2005-06-01 15:59 |
| #16 I find it strange that Muslims under terrorist attack don't take the most elementary security precautions. Israeli experience shows that even an exceptionally refined security system has a difficult time with suicide bombers. Afghanistan is a 3rd world country, and its hardly surprising theyd be less prepared. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2005-06-01 15:39 |
| #15 Are you really stooping to the tired old "chickenhawk" attack, LH? thats not the chicken hawk attack. Chicken hawk attack, as purveyed by the nasties on the left, is an attack on someone for advocating a POLICY, with the implication that to participate in a policy debate you need to have been a soldier, or to participate on the hawkish side of a policy debate one needs to have been a soldier. Im not saying that at all. What im saying is that to impugn the courage and willingness to take needed actions of folks who are underfire, when expressed by folks who are NOT now underfire, takes a degree of chutzpah I dont have. Its like some american or euro leftie telling Israelis to "take risks for peace" when they dont have to worry that dropping roadblocks could lead to their being killed in a pizza parlor. In the same way that I find such hectoring of Israelis dispicable, I find the hectoring of Afghans despicable. God dammit, these folk just went to a funeral that was effectively a protest - and 27 of them were killed for their efforts. Killed. Dead. WTF more do we want from these people? |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2005-06-01 15:37 |
| #14 Dollars to donuts sez the splodeydope is Soddy, after they put some of the bits back together. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-06-01 15:27 |
| #13 Afghanistan remains wracked by violence three and a half years after the fall of the ousted Islamic Taliban regime. More than 250 people, mostly militants, have died in recent months. Note the requisite quagmire paragraph. Twits. Yes, this is a tradgedy, but my guess is that it will just piss off the local even more and lead to increased pressure on the Taliban. Roast the bastards, but quick. |
| Posted by: remoteman 2005-06-01 15:07 |
| #12 I dont need to make excuses for the Afghan people to folks who sit safely behind their keyboards while the Afghan people, like the Iraqi people, live with danger and death. Are you really stooping to the tired old "chickenhawk" attack, LH? |
| Posted by: docob 2005-06-01 14:13 |
| #11 "Human limbs are scattered all over the mosque compound." Sadly, this is a statement that I'm becoming numb to. Part of me grieves for those who lost their lives, but a bigger part of me feels, at least it's not me here, and that they need to clean out their own vipers on the homefront. I would like to see MORE/FASTER action on REAL condemnations of these bombings and retaliation against those who perpetrated the act (not on the U.S. like the immediate torching of the KFC yesterday). |
| Posted by: BA 2005-06-01 13:53 |
| #10 mebbe theyn maker chanje if alla wils it zf. |
| Posted by: muck4doo 2005-06-01 12:11 |
| #9 I find it strange that Muslims under terrorist attack don't take the most elementary security precautions. It's almost as if they were resigned to the inevitability of death. They really need to quit that Inshallah (God Willing) act, because anything they don't prepare for, God wills. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-06-01 12:03 |
| #8 Quit making excuses for the lack of anger directed inwards at Arab/Islamic culture why should they be angry at Islamic culture, when they believe in Islamic culture, and reject the AQ interpretation of Islam?? As for anger at Arab culture, thats pretty irrelevant, since theyre not arabs - though from what I hear theyre not too fond of arabs. Their anger is directed at the Taliban and AQ. And thats enough. They dont have to adopt all the pet peeves of people here to be antiterrorist. Thats what I suspect is behind all the "why dont they protest" angst. They protest against terrorists often enough, and more importantly, they struggle against the terrorists, often paying with their LIVES, dammit. But they dont attack Islam per se, so theyre not truely antiterrorist, to some. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2005-06-01 11:10 |
| #7 Well I think that just living can be a political act. But joining the army is more than just living. Voting is more than just living. Attending the funeral of a man who was murdered by the Taliban is more than just living. I dont need to make excuses for the Afghan people to folks who sit safely behind their keyboards while the Afghan people, like the Iraqi people, live with danger and death. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2005-06-01 11:05 |
| #6 I thought I posted a comment here.What hapened? |
| Posted by: raptor 2005-06-01 11:01 |
| #5 Where is the BBC when they desecrate thier own religion as well as the Koran. |
| Posted by: plainslow 2005-06-01 10:58 |
| #4 I think Karzai has previously made the point that terrorist attacks and religious riots have desecrated Korans. He did this after the initial post-Newsweek riots. However, I agree that until Islam leaves violent Jihad completely and forever (something that the Ahmiyada and the Ismailis have almost done), Islam will remain a threat to civilization itself. Until that time Islam will also remain as the biggest oppressors of Moslems. |
| Posted by: mhw 2005-06-01 09:44 |
| #3 that's not protesting, LH - that's living. Quit making excuses for the lack of anger directed inwards at Arab/Islamic culture. It's a pathetic misdirection |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-06-01 09:25 |
| #2 The Afghans protest against things like this every day, by serving in the Afghan army, supporting Kharzai, voting in their elections, and rebuilding their country. Indeed, this bomb attacked a memorial service for an Imam who killed by the Taliban last weekend. It WAS a protest, in a sense. This foul desecration of a Mosque shows what Al Qaeeda is - the enemy of Islam. For the sake of Afghan muslims, its mosques and Korans, Al Qaeeda and the Taliban MUST be destroyed. Fortunately over 200 Taliban have been killed by Afghan and coalition forces, even as the Taliban target moderate muslim leaders. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2005-06-01 09:13 |
| #1 Again, where are the street protests over this desecration of the religion and a place of worship? Somebody needs to get pictures of Korans damaged (read desecrated) in these types of incidents to help all would be protesters put the world in context. Visuals would go a long way toward making it clear. |
| Posted by: Tkat 2005-06-01 08:34 |