Afghanistan: explosion at a power station, casualties reported

AFP via translation | March 29, 2008

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via translation -

Afghanistan: explosion at a power station, likely victims

KANDAHAR (Afghanistan) - An explosion in a small hydroelectric plant in the south of Afghanistan Saturday may have caused several deaths and injuries, announced an administrative officer.

The cause of the explosion had not yet been identified Saturday morning in the central district of Gereshk, in the volatile province of Helmand, said the district chief Abdul Manaf.

The latter did not exclude the possibility of an attack.

"Many people may have been killed and injured. Four people injured were evacuated from the building to the hospital," he told AFP. But there remain many people under the rubble.

"The nature of the explosion was unclear," he added.

The extremist Taliban, who are waging a bloody insurgency to blows with bombs and suicide attacks, are most active in Helmand province, the breadbasket opium from Afghanistan.

They were driven from power in late 2001 for supporting the movement and sheltered Al-Qaeda, responsible for the murderous attacks of September 11 in the United States.

Since then, they targeted mainly the institutions and infrastructure of the State as well as some 70,000 foreign troops in the country, but killing more civilians.

[LjubivojeRadosavljevic]

...They were driven from power in late 2001 for supporting the movement and sheltered Al-Qaeda, responsible for the murderous attacks of September 11 in the United States.

Issat right...