Afghan Truck Bomb Kills 5; Dozens Wounded
By RAY RIVERA and SANGAR RAHIMI
Published: September 11, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan — A cargo truck packed with explosives struck a NATO outpost south of the capital late Saturday, killing at least five people and wounding dozens more, including 77 coalition troops, NATO and Afghan officials said Sunday.
Among the dead was an 8-year-old girl whom officials said was hit by flying shrapnel more than a half-mile away.
The injury toll was believed to be one of the worst for foreign forces in a single incident in the decade-long war, and came in the same district of Wardak Province where two months ago insurgents shot down an American Chinook helicopter, killing all 30 Americans and 8 Afghans on board.
No coalition troops died in Saturday’s explosion, and none of their injuries were considered life threatening, NATO said in a statement, adding that many were expected to return to their duties shortly.
NATO did not release the nationalities of the injured soldiers, but the outpost was run by Americans, who provide most of the soldiers in that region. The bomb struck in the district of Sayed Abad near the main highway that links Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar.
The bombing was another indication of the eroding security situation in Wardak and other provinces close to the capital, even as NATO officials say violence overall in the country has begun to decline.
NATO officials said in a statement that two civilians were killed and 25 were wounded. District officials, however, said a police officer and four civilians were killed, among them the girl and three laborers who were working at the base. The girl was in her village of Belandi Khel about a half-mile from the blast when she was hit, the spokesman for the provincial governor’s office, Shahidullah Shahid, said.
He said the bomber drove a “jingle truck” filled with explosives. The medium-size cargo trucks are a mainstay of commerce in the country and named for the bright assortment of paintings and noise-making bobbles that adorn them.
Among the wounded were two police officers, an Afghan intelligence officer and a merchant in a nearby bazaar, Mr. Shahid said. Two doctors from a nearby health clinic were also injured.
NATO officials said the blast damaged a perimeter wall and a maintenance facility. But protective barriers around the camp absorbed most of the explosion. The injury toll likely represented well more than half the troop-power of the outpost, which are typically run by a single company, though a NATO spokesman, citing operational security, declined to discuss troop numbers.
The outpost “remains operational and protective barriers have been repaired after the failed attempt by insurgents to degrade the operational capabilities and cause of loss of life to coalition troops,” NATO said in a statement.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/world/asia/12afghan.html?hp
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