A bomb blew up a small bus in Afghanistan today killing nine civilians, two of them children, while the Taliban assassinated a senior provincial government official, authorities said. Another six civilians were wounded in the bomb blast in the southern province of Uruzgan, the provincial police chief Juma Gul Hemat said. He blamed the attack on the "enemies of Afghanistan", a phrase that usually means insurgents from the Taliban.
Mr Hemat said the dead were seven men and two children. He could not immediately give details about them. "This bomb was planted by the enemies of Afghanistan for police and Nato forces. It struck a civilian bus and killed innocent people," he said. The attack was similar to others in Afghanistan with roadside bombs among the main weapons used against the security forces that are trying to quell an insurgency launched after the Taliban were removed from government in 2001.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Earlier Tuesday, armed men on motorbikes shot dead the head of the government's labour and social affairs department for the southern province of Kandahar, police said. Dost Mohammad Arighistani was killed in his car with his bodyguard as he was travelling to work, the provincial police chief Mutihullah Khan Qatah said. His driver was wounded.
The attackers managed to flee the area and a Taliban spokesman, Yusouf Ahmadi, said in a telephone call afterwards that men from his militia had carried out the attack. It was similar to the Sept 28 assassination of the province's most senior policewoman who was shot dead in the city as she was being driven to work. The Taliban also claimed responsibility. The insurgents target government officials as well Afghan and international troops in their campaign to unseat the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
*AFP
