Suicide bomber kills 10 in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber aiming for a progovernment militia commander detonated his bomb-laden vest in a southeastern provincial capital, Gardez, yesterday, and witnesses said he killed 10 people and wounded 27, most of them civilians. Also yesterday, the governor of a neighboring province survived a bomb attack.
In Gardez, capital of Paktia Province, witnesses said the suicide bomber walked up to the commander, Nasir Paray, who leads one of the many progovernment armed groups in the area, and detonated his vest. The commander died in the blast, which also killed four children.
After the explosion, witnesses said the only parts of the bomber to be found were his legs.
In neighboring Khost province, the governor, Tahir Khan Sabari, suffered minor wounds after being showered by broken glass when a bomb exploded outside his window during a meeting in his compound in the provincial capital. The bomb was hidden under trash outside the wall of his compound. Six other Afghan officials were wounded.
Khost is the province where, just over a week ago, a Jordanian suicide bomber killed seven Americans working for the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA officers were hoping to recruit the Jordanian to help them gather intelligence on Al Qaeda’s leaders across the border in Pakistan.
Khost and Paktia provinces are among the most volatile in Afghanistan. They are dominated by Pashtuns, the ethnic group that supplies most of the manpower for the Taliban. Both provinces border the Pakistani tribal agency of North Waziristan, a sanctuary for both Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Also in Khost, Afghan intelligence officials said yesterday that they had killed two would-be suicide bombers during an operation in the Badkhiel Lakan neighborhood of Khost City.
Meanwhile in Kabul, Afghan election officials announced a timetable for parliamentary elections to be held May 22. Voters will choose 249 members of the lower house of the Afghan Parliament for five-year terms.
Afghan officials are laboring under the shadow cast by last year’s presidential election, which was marred by extraordinary levels of fraud. Dawoud Ali Najafi, an official with the Afghan Electoral Commission, said at a news conference that he hoped security would be sufficient to allow voting to go forward in all parts of the country.
