AFGHANISTAN: Explosion Kills 9 in Afghanistan
Posted by warvictims on July 17, 2009
By TAIMOOR SHAH
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Nine civilians, including five infants, were killed Friday when a mine exploded in front of a religious shrine in southern Afghanistan, officials said.
The explosion occurred in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar Province, as members of the same family drove to visit the shrine in the remote Wanaka area.
Separately, the British Defense Ministry in London said on Friday that a British soldier was killed Thursday in the southern province of Helmand — the latest British casualty as a debate in Britain intensifies about the quality of equipment available to British troops as they face roadside bombs and other attacks by the Taliban.
Since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001, 185 British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, 16 of them this month.
British forces in Helmand are supporting a drive by some 4,000 American Marines to drive Taliban fighters from their strongholds in advance of national elections next month. But the coalition’s effort to stabilize the country before the ballot has been challenged by a spike in Taliban bombings.
Afghan officials, who spoke in return for anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters, said the mine appeared to have been planted recently. The victims included five infants aged between 6 and 18 months, two men and two women. Two other civilians were injured, hospital officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but a senior security official, Gen. Abdul Raziq, blamed the Taliban for what he called “barbaric actions.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/world/asia/18afghan.html?_r=1&hp
