Al Qaeda-Taliban Suicide Attack Killed 59 Children
Friday, November 9, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan: A suicide attack in northern Afghanistan earlier this week killed 59 schoolchildren and wounded 96 others, the Education Ministry said Friday.
The schoolchildren had lined up to greet a group of lawmakers visiting a sugar factory in the northern province of Baghlan on Tuesday when a suicide bomber detonated explosives amongst them. Early investigations indicate that the attacker used ball bearings to maximise casualties. The interior ministry estimates around 1,000 may have been used, one of the reasons the death toll was so high.
The ball bearings were mixed with explosives, the interior ministry says.
In total, at least 75 people were killed, including several parliamentarians.
Fifty-nine schoolchildren ages 8 to 18 and five teachers were among those killed in the attack, said Zahoor Afghan, an Education Ministry spokesman.
The attack was the deadliest in the country since the toppling of Taliban regime from power in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
“The education minister has ordered that no children should be ever again be used in these sort of events,” the spokesman said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai declared three days of mourning Wednesday and ordered an investigation. No group has claimed responsibility, and the Taliban denied any involvement.
Also Friday, NATO and Afghan troops battled Taliban fighters near Gulistan district in western Farah province. The soldiers seized the district center, leaving up to 20 suspected militants dead after militants overran it last week, said Gen. Abdul Rahman Sarjang, the provincial police chief.
On Thursday, U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops surrounded a compound where militants had gathered near Tirin Kot, in Uruzgan province, sparking a clash which left seven suspected Taliban fighters dead, said Juma Gul Hamat, the provincial police chief. Four other militants were detained, he said.
There were no casualties among coalition and Afghan forces, Hamat said.
In southern Zabul province, Taliban militants on motorbikes ambushed and killed Shahjoy’s district chief and two of his bodyguards on Thursday, said Mohammad Rasool Khan, a district police chief.
The victims were shopping in a market when four militants on two motorbikes shot them dead, said Khan.
Coalition and Afghan troops, meanwhile, clashed with Taliban insurgents in southern Helmand province’s Nahr Surk district on Wednesday, leaving several militants dead, a coalition statement said.
The joint force was conducting a reconnaissance patrol near the district when insurgents engaged them with machine guns, rocket propelled grenades and small-arms fire, the statement said.
“The combined force immediately engaged the Taliban fighters with small-arms fire and close air support, killing many of the insurgents before they fled the area,” it said.
Violence in Afghanistan this year has been the deadliest since the Taliban’s ouster. More than 5,700 people, mostly militants, have died so far this year in insurgency-related violence, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.
(AP)
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Muslims, Islamists whatever you want to call them…..whats coming from Islam is producing this evil…….whereever I look around the world.
When you love your children more than you hate you will have peace.
November 9th, 2007 at 9:01 amNot one moment before.
I wish the civilized world would quit kidding itself and admit that more drastic measures are required in dealing with Al-Queda and Taliban types. We try to fight this modernized, clean war against an enemy that thinks nothing of murdering school aged children and then pretend we don’t understand why the war on terror continues to drag on.
Tell Pakistan and Afghanistan the time for negotiation and its faux harmony are over with - no negotiation. We are going to burn everyone of these Taliban bastards and anybody that associates with them, whether they be goat herders, drug runners, or tribe clan. Pull out the stops - and use whatever means are necessary no matter how brutal. If we have to paint the mountain side with fervent heat from 50,000 feet, do so without apology.
If we don’t, we will be having these same discussion 10 years from now with more dead special forces fighting the next generation. Our guys and gals have done yeoman’s work while having their hands tied. We owe it to them.
November 9th, 2007 at 9:44 amGreat…..just wait til the MSM gets ahold of this….They’ll spin it so GW or our troops get the blame.
November 9th, 2007 at 9:48 am“The education minister has ordered that no children should be ever again be used in these sort of events,” the spokesman said”
Why would they be their in the first place or around anything political
Those kids should not have been their to greet lawmakers
November 9th, 2007 at 8:02 pm