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| Afghanistan | ||
| Afghan truck blast claims childrens lives: Police | ||
| 2009-07-10 | ||
| [Al Arabiya Latest] An overturned truck rigged with explosives blew up near Kabul on Thursday, killing 25 people including many school students in one of the deadliest blasts this year in war-torn Afghanistan, police said. Loaded with firewood, the truck overturned overnight about 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of the capital in Logar province and exploded as authorities were trying to remove the vehicle in the early morning, they said. The attack comes as Western militaries boost their troop deployments to Afghanistan ahead of key presidential and provincial council elections scheduled for August 20. "In the explosion today 21 civilians and four policemen have been martyred," provincial police chief Ghulam Mustafa Mohsini told AFP. School children dead
The students were struck as they were going to area schools -- the first educates pupils aged nine to 12 years old and the second students aged between 16 and 18, locals said. Some of the children who died in the explosion were believed to be aged 10 to 12 years. Police said some bodies were burned beyond recognition. The interior ministry in Kabul gave the same death toll. "A total of 25 people have been killed and four are wounded including three children," ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP. "Police went in the morning to see and open the road. As police arrived at the scene the truck exploded and unfortunately killed 21 civilians and four policemen." The blast created a large crater in the ground and caused widespread damage, he said. It was not clear if the truck was headed to the capital to carry out an attack or had been intended to explode where it did, the official said. "We don't know at this stage. There was no driver in the morning with the truck. We are still investigating the issue," he said. The governor of Mohammad Agha district, where the explosion took place, said 12 bodies were initially identified and that most of them were school students. "We are still trying to recover bodies from under the debris of collapsed shops. There are more people dead," said the official, Abdul Hameed Hamid.
Three shops were totally destroyed and windows smashed up to one kilometer (half-mile) away from the explosion, he said. The blast took place on a main road from southern and eastern Afghanistan that heads into the capital Kabul. The truck was heading towards Kabul, said provincial government spokesman Din Mohammad Darwish. "It seems that the explosives were remotely detonated as a crowd gathered around the truck in the morning," he said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. | ||
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 One person says that 25 people have been "martyred", another said they've been "killed". Why won't anyone stand up and say the truth, that 25 people, including 13 young children, were coldly and deliberately MURDERED. There is only one place for anyone that commits such an attrocity, and that's in a 2x6x6 hole in the ground, without coffin or wrappings. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2009-07-10 11:37 |