KABUL, 2 March 2007 — A roadside bomb in western Afghanistan left three civilians dead and 48 wounded, including 10 children, officials said yesterday.
The blast targeted a passing police vehicle in the city of Farah, killing the civilians, wounding 10 children and dozens of construction workers, said Muhammad Qasem Bayan, the chief of public health department for Farah province. The attack happened in the city center, near a school, Bayan said.
The police vehicle was slightly damaged and two officers were also wounded, said Zemeri Bashary, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior. “It is the work of enemies of Afghanistan,” Bashary said, suggesting that resurgent Taleban militants were behind the attack.
The attack took place at around 8:10 a.m. when a roadside bomb was detonated near the vehicle of the provincial police chief, Said Agha Saqib, who is believed to have been the target of the attack. Speaking to Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Saqib said he was not in the vehicle at the time of the explosion, which killed two civilians and wounded two policemen.
In southern Helmand province on Wednesday, residents discovered the body of a doctor, who was kidnapped and killed by suspected Taleban earlier in the week, said Gen. Mohammad Eisah, province’s deputy police chief.
The doctor was shot in the head and chest and his body was dumped on the side of the road near Helmand’s capital Lashkar Gah, Eisah said.
Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett yesterday visited the southern Afghan province of Helmand where thousands of British troops are deployed to fight the Taleban, a statement said. Beckett met local legislators and British forces operating in the provincial capital Lashkargah under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the British Foreign Office said in a statement.
