Attacks in Afghanistan Grow More Frequent and Lethal
By CARLOTTA GALL
New York Times
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Sept. 26 — Afghanistan suffered two deadly bombings on Tuesday that killed 20 people, providing another sign of the increasing size and power of suicide attacks and roadside bombs by insurgents.
The more devastating attack occurred when the police stopped a suicide bomber as he approached a security checkpoint near the governor’s office in Lashkar Gah, in southern Helmand Province, and he detonated explosives strapped to his chest.
The bomber killed 18 people, 6 of them policemen and soldiers. The rest of the casualties, including a woman, were civilians who had gathered at a central mosque to sign up for the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, said the police chief of Helmand, Gen. Muhammad Nabi Mullahkhel.
South of Kabul, the capital, a bomb planted under a bridge struck a NATO military vehicle, killing an Italian soldier and an Afghan child nearby.
The suicide attack in Lashkar Gah was the second there in a month, and one of more than 60 in Afghanistan this year, United Nations officials said. The tactic was rarely used by insurgents a year ago.
Civilians increasingly have been paying the price of the more frequent and devastating attacks. More than 150 civilians have been killed by suicide bombings this year, the head of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, said recently, before the attacks on Tuesday.
(The rest is here.)
New York Times
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Sept. 26 — Afghanistan suffered two deadly bombings on Tuesday that killed 20 people, providing another sign of the increasing size and power of suicide attacks and roadside bombs by insurgents.
The more devastating attack occurred when the police stopped a suicide bomber as he approached a security checkpoint near the governor’s office in Lashkar Gah, in southern Helmand Province, and he detonated explosives strapped to his chest.
The bomber killed 18 people, 6 of them policemen and soldiers. The rest of the casualties, including a woman, were civilians who had gathered at a central mosque to sign up for the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, said the police chief of Helmand, Gen. Muhammad Nabi Mullahkhel.
South of Kabul, the capital, a bomb planted under a bridge struck a NATO military vehicle, killing an Italian soldier and an Afghan child nearby.
The suicide attack in Lashkar Gah was the second there in a month, and one of more than 60 in Afghanistan this year, United Nations officials said. The tactic was rarely used by insurgents a year ago.
Civilians increasingly have been paying the price of the more frequent and devastating attacks. More than 150 civilians have been killed by suicide bombings this year, the head of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, said recently, before the attacks on Tuesday.
(The rest is here.)
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