Suicide Bomber Kills 26 in Northern Afghanistan
By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA
November 7, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 6 -- A suicide bomber threw himself at a delegation of lawmakers visiting a town in northern Afghanistan Tuesday, killing at least 26 people, including a leading opposition figure, and wounding scores more, many of them schoolchildren forming a welcome parade, local and regional Afghan officials said.
Such an attack, in the relatively peaceful neighborhood of New Baghlan, near Pul-i-Kumri, is unusual and appears to represent another effort by the Taliban to extend its reach to the north. There was an immediate denial of responsibility from a Taliban spokesman, but he has often been unreliable in the past, and no other group carries out suicide attacks in the country.
The former minister of commerce, Sayed Mustafa Kazemi, was among the five members of Parliament who were killed. One female Parliament member, Shukria Isakhel, and an influential local commander, Amir Gul, were among the wounded, Afghan National Television reported in its evening news.
Witnesses described a scene of carnage outside the sugar factory where the bomber detonated his explosives midafternoon, and said the bodies of dead policemen were still lying on the ground three hours later.
The death of Mr. Kazemi is a blow to Afghanistan's nascent political scene. A prominent member of the Northern Alliance movement, which had fought the Taliban, he was one of a younger generation of leaders eager to pull Afghanistan out of the poverty of war. He is one of the leaders and the spokesman of a recently formed opposition movement, the National Front, which was a coalition of representatives of the northern minorities and some prominent Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, including the grandson of the late king.
Mr. Kazemi and his delegation were walking toward the factory when the bomber attacked, said Shaheen, the deputy mayor of Pul-i-Kumri, who uses only one name. Mr. Shaheen confirmed that 10 people had been killed, including Mr. Kazemi. The governor, Muhammad Alam Eshaqzai, said more than 50 had been wounded. Reuters quoted the head of the town hospital, Dr. Khalilullah, as saying that it had received the bodies of 90 people and 50 wounded, but the governor would confirm only 10 dead.
A police officer, Cmdr. Kamin, said that he had counted 26 bodies at the scene and that there were 60 wounded at one hospital in New Baghlan, a newly developed part of the town of Baghlan where the factory lies. "Most of those killed are elders who gathered to welcome these parliamentarians in front of the factory, and schoolchildren, and especially children who were there to sing," he said in a telephone interview. "Definitely it was a suicide attack; I saw the body of the attacker," he added.
Farid Ahmad, a local reporter for Radio Good Morning Afghanistan, said he saw the bodies of three police soldiers lying on the ground at 6:30 p.m., some three hours after the explosion. "The area is chaotic," he said. He estimated that 50 had been killed and 150 wounded.
The White House issued a statement on Tuesday condemning the attack. "The terrorist attack today in Afghanistan is a despicable act of cowardice," the statement read, "and it reminds us who the enemy is: extremists with evil in their hearts who target innocent Muslim men, women and children. The president expresses his sorrow for the grieving families of the victims."
Afghan National Television gave the names of the other members of Parliament killed as Abdul Mateen, a former communist engineer from the southern province of Helmand; Qudrutallah Zaki, from the northern province of Takhar; and Said Rahman Hehmat, from Kunar Province in the east. The fifth was Muhammad Arif Zarif from Kabul, Mr. Ahmad said.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman who has often made erroneous claims in the past, denied that the Taliban was responsible. "The Taliban has no involvement or no hands in the blast that killed civilians in Baghlan Province," he said. "We, the movement of the Taliban, condemn the action and whoever carried it out. It took the lives of ordinary people mostly."
Taimoor Shah contributed reporting from Kandahar, Afghanistan.