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Taliban car bomb kills three in Kandahar
By Nasrat Shoib (AFP) – Dec 27, 2010
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A Taliban car bomb targeted a bank where police queued for salaries in southern Afghanistan's biggest city of Kandahar Monday, killing three people and wounding at least 12 others.
Kandahar, the birthplace of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, is at the heart of a nine-year Taliban insurgency which 140,000 US-led NATO troops are battling to reverse in order to hand security control to the Afghan government by 2014.
"Initially we received one dead body and two of the wounded died later, taking the death toll to three," said Mohammad Afzal, a doctor at the city's main hospital. He added that 12 people had been injured, mostly police.
The city's police chief, Khan Mohammad, said a car bomb exploded in front of a bank and that one of those killed was a policeman.
Police were said to be collecting their salaries when the blast happened. It was the second bomb targeting Afghan police in the city in just over two weeks.
"This was a car bomb attack which exploded next to police vehicles in front of Kabul Bank," Mohammad said.
An AFP reporter at the scene said that gunfire erupted following the blast, which shattered windows around 200 metres away.
Amid conflicting reports, the local governor's office said the attacker was a suicide bomber and that as many as 26 people were hurt, including 16 police.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
"Today was a special day for police to get salaries," spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said. "Our man detonated a car from a distance and has killed and wounded 18 police."
Kandahar city has been flooded with NATO troops in recent months and there is a regular stream of convoys and patrols on the streets. Local commanders say security in the city has been improved as a result.
Explaining what happened in the blast, local police officer Basir Khan told AFP: "Police had come to the bank to get their salaries and they had parked vehicles outside.
"A vehicle packed with explosives was parked next to police vehicles and it exploded."
President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, which he said "again showed the dire intention and anti-Islamic actions of terrorists who don't want the Afghan people to live in peace."
On December 11, four policemen and two children were injured by a car bomb which detonated near the police headquarters in Kandahar city.
President Barack Obama announced 30,000 extra troops for Afghanistan last year as part of a surge strategy to try to turn around the conflict.
In a review of the strategy published earlier this month, Obama insisted it was on track although he stressed that gains were fragile.
Kabul Bank was rocked by scandal in September with former executives investigated over allegations that they had granted themselves huge loans.
Despite fears that the bank could collapse, injections of cash by central financial authorities kept the institution afloat -- and paying out civil service salaries. The bank's owners include a brother of Karzai.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...28e354c915.9d1
By Nasrat Shoib (AFP) – Dec 27, 2010
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A Taliban car bomb targeted a bank where police queued for salaries in southern Afghanistan's biggest city of Kandahar Monday, killing three people and wounding at least 12 others.
Kandahar, the birthplace of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, is at the heart of a nine-year Taliban insurgency which 140,000 US-led NATO troops are battling to reverse in order to hand security control to the Afghan government by 2014.
"Initially we received one dead body and two of the wounded died later, taking the death toll to three," said Mohammad Afzal, a doctor at the city's main hospital. He added that 12 people had been injured, mostly police.
The city's police chief, Khan Mohammad, said a car bomb exploded in front of a bank and that one of those killed was a policeman.
Police were said to be collecting their salaries when the blast happened. It was the second bomb targeting Afghan police in the city in just over two weeks.
"This was a car bomb attack which exploded next to police vehicles in front of Kabul Bank," Mohammad said.
An AFP reporter at the scene said that gunfire erupted following the blast, which shattered windows around 200 metres away.
Amid conflicting reports, the local governor's office said the attacker was a suicide bomber and that as many as 26 people were hurt, including 16 police.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
"Today was a special day for police to get salaries," spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said. "Our man detonated a car from a distance and has killed and wounded 18 police."
Kandahar city has been flooded with NATO troops in recent months and there is a regular stream of convoys and patrols on the streets. Local commanders say security in the city has been improved as a result.
Explaining what happened in the blast, local police officer Basir Khan told AFP: "Police had come to the bank to get their salaries and they had parked vehicles outside.
"A vehicle packed with explosives was parked next to police vehicles and it exploded."
President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, which he said "again showed the dire intention and anti-Islamic actions of terrorists who don't want the Afghan people to live in peace."
On December 11, four policemen and two children were injured by a car bomb which detonated near the police headquarters in Kandahar city.
President Barack Obama announced 30,000 extra troops for Afghanistan last year as part of a surge strategy to try to turn around the conflict.
In a review of the strategy published earlier this month, Obama insisted it was on track although he stressed that gains were fragile.
Kabul Bank was rocked by scandal in September with former executives investigated over allegations that they had granted themselves huge loans.
Despite fears that the bank could collapse, injections of cash by central financial authorities kept the institution afloat -- and paying out civil service salaries. The bank's owners include a brother of Karzai.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...28e354c915.9d1