Afghan suicide blast kills eight civilians

KABUL, April 10: At least eight Afghan civilians were killed and 22 more, including a policeman were injured in a car bomb attack on NATO forces convoy in southern Afghanistan on Thursday. The car bomb attack was carried out by a Taliban suicide bomber in the city of Kandahar, capital of the province having the same name. Majority of troops operating in Kandahar as art of the NATO’s peacekeeping and counter-insurgency mission are Canadians. Unofficial reports suggested that the Canadian troops have suffered over 80 casualties since their coming into Afghanistan as part of the US-led global war on terror against al-Qaeda and Taliban. All those killed in the suicide attack were civilians, said Kandahar police chief Brig. Gen. Sayed Aqa Saqib. But Taliban spokesman Yousaf Ahmadi, calling to media personnel from an undisclosed location, said the NATO troops were targeted and several of them were killed and injured. Ahmad would not mention the exact number of those “NATO soldiers killed and injured” in the blast. There is no comment from NATO press office in Kandahar or Kabul so far. Witnesses said the blast took place soon after a NATO convoy passed through a market area. The bomber missed the convoy and killed and maimed innocent civilians instead, said an eyewitness Ahmad Ali, running a shop in the nearby locality. The nearly seven-year of counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism war in Afghanistan have killed and maimed hundreds of Afghan civilians in different parts of the insurgency-plagued country. Recent reports suggested that majority of victims of military operations in different parts of the country are civilians. Most of them become victims of bombing from the air mostly in the troubled southern region also called the Pashtun belt of Afghanistan. Recently, controversial claims were made about a NATO forces attack on Do Aaba district of the country’s Nuristan province in the eastern zone. The foreign troops said the more than 12 people killed in the air strike were Taliban and militants loyal to warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. However, Afghan civilians from those areas and some officials privately admitted that only civilians were killed in the operations. Afghan President Hamid KarzaiAfghan President Hamid Karzai and UN officials have time and again asked for constraints while conducting operations in civilian areas. According to analysts, civilian casualties in NATO and Coalition forces operations create hatred against the foreign troops and mount support for the Taliban and other anti-government elements in the war-devastated country. ENDS