Explosion Outside Western Afghan Police Station Kills Five, Injures Dozens More

AP ^ | July 11, 2004

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Explosion Outside Western Afghan Police Station Kills Five, Injures Dozens More

Amir Shah/Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A bomb exploded outside a police station in the western Afghan city of Herat on Sunday, killing five people and injuring dozens more, including a police officer, authorities said. Herat police chief Ziauddin Mahmoudi said a time bomb concealed in a pile of garbage along a main road exploded near a building with shops on the ground floor and a police station on the upper floor.

The blast killed five people, including a 12-year-old boy, and wounded at least one police officer, officials said.

Reporters saw at least 30 wounded people taken to the city's main hospital. Four children with bandaged heads lay in one ward, with two wearing oxygen masks.

Six people were in critical condition, said Mohammed Omar Sameem, the head of public health.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack as an "act of terrorism."

Karzai blamed "enemies who are desperately trying to derail Afghanistan from the path of reconstruction, peace and democracy."

The blast highlights the spreading insecurity in Afghanistan as the country prepares for landmark presidential elections Oct. 9.

Nearly 600 people have died in violence across the country this year, including six election workers killed in a string of shootings and bombings.

Sunday's explosion occurred as a ceremony was being held elsewhere in Herat to mark the start of the disarmament of militia forces under a U.N.-backed program.

U.N. spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said the blast happened near a carpet shop three miles from the disarmament parade.

Herat is considered one of the more stable provinces in the war-battered country and has been largely spared attacks by Taliban-led insurgents active in the south and east.

Herat city is 360 miles west of the capital, Kabul.

However, Karzai deployed forces of the U.S.-trained Afghan national army there in March after factional fighting killed 16 people, including Mirwais Sadiq, a Cabinet minister and son of Herat Gov. Ismail Khan.

The United Nations and Karzai have cited that clash and repeated fighting among warlord militias across the north as proof of the need for disarmament.

The world body irritated Khan, an anti-Taliban warlord and anti-Soviet resistance hero, by identifying him as one of the leaders stalling the process.

Khan has warned that demobilizing his men could leave a security vacuum.

The joint U.N.-Afghan electoral commission cited slow disarmament as a major factor in its decision Friday to postpone parliamentary elections, originally meant to be held simultaneously with the country's first direct presidential vote, until spring.

The world body is concerned that armed factions and drug traffickers will use their guns and wealth to fill parliament with their supporters.

The top U.N. official in Afghanistan, Jean Arnault, said Sunday it was possible that militias could stage incidents in order to argue that they are needed to maintain security.

Arnault urged NATO to speed its much-delayed northern deployment of peacekeeping troops currently confined to Kabul and one other city - to protect election preparations.

"The time for the arrival of international forces is now," he said.