Blast Kills at Least 17 in Restive Afghan Province
By AZAM AHMED
KABUL, Afghanistan — A minivan carrying nearly two dozen civilians to a
wedding in eastern Afghanistan struck a roadside mine on Sunday, killing
at least 17 people, mostly women.
The explosion occurred around 4:30 p.m. in the Andar district of Ghazni
Province, a restive area southeast of Kabul. The blast wounded five
other passengers, two of whom remain in critical condition, said Col.
Assadullah Insafi, the deputy provincial police chief.
Even as the usual fighting season in Afghanistan is drawing to a close
as the weather grows colder, violence has continued to plague large
stretches of the country. As Afghan forces have taken the lead in
security operations ahead of the coalition troop withdrawal next year,
the Taliban have stepped up their attacks, hoping to undermine the
government and sow chaos.
Along with it has come a growing toll on Afghan civilians. A United Nations report
released this year found a 23 percent increase in civilian casualties
during the first six months of 2013, many of them attributed to the
Taliban’s indiscriminate use of roadside bombs.
In a separate attack early Monday, a roadside bomb detonated in eastern
Kabul as a truck carrying air force personnel passed, according to the
Afghan Ministry of Defense. The explosion killed at least one civilian
and injured three military personnel.
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