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Blast kills 80 at dog fight
17/02/2008 18:36 - (SA)
Kandahar - Two powerful dogs had just been unleashed for a Sunday fight and the excitement of the male-only crowd was mounting.
Seconds later, a huge explosion struck, and the open area hosting about 500 fans of a favourite Afghan winter sport quickly became a scene of carnage, said 53-year-old spectator Abdul Karim.
Next to the remains of more than 80 people whom officials said were killed were the bleeding bodies of scores of wounded, torn-up vehicles, crumpled bicycles and dozens of sparkly Afghan caps, turbans, shawls and shoes.
"Fighting had just started between two dogs," said bearded Karim at the site of the blast on the outskirts of Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar.
"Suddenly, I heard a huge explosion next to a police vehicle. Then I saw lots of people dead and wounded. I counted more than 40 people on the ground dead."
Those who could walk scattered in panic; the dead and wounded were loaded into civilian vehicles and rushed to hospitals in the city centre, 15km away, said Karim.
Some searched in the chaos for relatives.
"My brother was killed," said one teenage boy, his eyes filling with tears.
Another fan of the sport, which was banned by the Taliban government during its 1996-2001 stint in power, described the incident as the "most horrible in my life".
"I don't know where it came from," said Abdul Qudous in a military hospital where he was being treated for injuries to his arm.
"It was all fun and two dogs had just begun fighting. Suddenly a huge flame flashed and a huge bang was heard. I didn't know what happened next, but when I opened my eyes, I found myself here."
Dead and wounded lying around him
Another spectator, Sher Mohammad, said the powerful blast had hurled him metres away from where he had been standing in a circle of men around the dog fight.
"I saw a big cloud of dust and smoke above me," he said at the hospital, where he was treated for leg wounds. "I could see people lying dead and wounded around me. It was horrible."
Suspicion for the deadliest attack in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban immediately fell on the extremist group, which launched an insurgency soon after being driven from government in a US-led invasion.
It did not however immediately claim responsibility for the blast.
It also did not admit to the previously most-severe suicide attack, which killed 79 civilians in the northern province of Baghlan in November, although officials said the Taliban were responsible.
- AFP
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