String of Bombings Kill at Least 21 in Afghanistan

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: June 11, 2011

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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A string of attacks across Afghanistanon Saturday, including a suicide bomber pushing an ice cream cart, killed at least 21 people, officials said, while the United Nations released a report showing May to be the deadliest month for Afghan civilians since 2007.

Rahmat Gul/Associated Press

A bomb killed two police officers and wounded nine others who were investigating an earlier explosion late Friday in the eastern province of Laghman, a spokesman for the provincial governor said.

The worst attack on Saturday took place in the Khakrez District of Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan, where a roadside bomb killed all 16 members of a family traveling to a shrine for a religious pilgrimage. The family included 8 children, 5 women and 3 men who were in a minibus, said the provincial police chief, Abdul Raziq.

Mr. Raziq said that the bomb was planted by the Taliban and that it was intended for NATO or Afghan forces.

In the eastern province of Khost, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the police headquarters in the Shai Kali area, killing three police officers and a child, said Sadar Mohammad Zazai, the provincial police chief.

Among the four people killed was a local police chief, Mohammad Zahir Khan, Mr. Zazai said. The provincial health director, Hedayatullah Hamidi, said 25 people were wounded in the attack.

Another suicide bomber, this one pushing an ice cream cart, killed a child and wounded three more in the central province of Ghazni, said the provincial police chief, Mohammad Hussain.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombings and said, “All Afghans want peace and stability in their country, and none of these cruel and inhuman actions will stop the aim of peace.”

The violence came the same day the United Nations released an interim report that concludes that 368 civilians were killed in the conflict and 593 were wounded last month, making May the deadliest month for Afghan civilians since 2007 — when the United Nations started keeping detailed records. Previously, the deadliest month was August 2008 with 341 deaths.

The United Nations said insurgents were responsible for 82 percent of those civilian deaths last month, while 12 percent were attributed to the international alliance and Afghan forces. Homemade bombs, like the roadside device that struck the minibus in Kandahar on Saturday, were the leading cause of death, the report said.

NATO airstrikes, a frequent cause of tension between the Afghan government and the alliance, were responsible for 3 percent of civilian deaths in May.

Casualty figures for which the coalition and Afghan forces are blamed have been steadily declining in the last four years — despite a rapid swelling in the number of allied and government forces. A recent United Nations report found that insurgents were responsible for 2,080 deaths in 2010 compared with 440 for the coalition and Afghan troops. The report found that deaths caused by airstrikes declined by 52 percent compared to 2009.

The United Nations, which is preparing a midyear civilian casualty report for 2011, said it decided to release the interim numbers Saturday because of the high rate of civilian killings in May.

Meanwhile, a bomb killed two police officers and wounded nine others who were investigating an earlier explosion late Friday at a satellite television network office in Mehterlam, a city in the eastern province of Laghman, a spokesman for the provincial governor, Faizelullah Patan, said.

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