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Dozens die in Kabul bus blast
29/09/2007 08:40 - (SA)
Kabul - A suicide bomber wearing an army uniform blew up a bus carrying Afghan soldiers in Kabul on Saturday, killing at least 31 people and wounding many others, the health and defence ministries said.
Most of the dead military personnel were soldiers and officers going to work at the defence ministry but several passers-by were also believed to have been killed, officials and witnesses said.
The insurgent Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the early morning attack, the deadliest in the city since a similar explosion on a police bus in June killed about 35 people.
The force of the explosion blew off the roof and sides of the large bus, which was reduced to mangled metal.
Television pictures showed the bodies of men who appeared to be Afghan National Army soldiers being pulled from the wreckage. Some of the dead were still in their seats. Debris was scattered across a wide area.
"At this time I can tell you that 31, almost all of them military personnel, have been martyred," said Public Health Minister Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatemi.
Seventeen of the wounded were in a critical condition, he said during a visit to the city's main military hospital where many of the casualties were taken.
Ramadan attacks
The suicide attacker, who had been wearing an army uniform, detonated explosives strapped to his body as he approached the bus, the ministry said in a statement.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahed said the attack was part of a Taliban "operation" of attacks planned for the holy month of Ramadan.
There have been more than 100 suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year, most blamed on the Taliban.
- AFP
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