By RAY RIVERA
Published: June 25, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan ? A vehicle packed with explosives detonated in front of a hospital in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least 30 people, including women and children, government officials said.
The Ministry of Public Health said that another 120 people were wounded in the explosion and that it was trying to verify the number of casualties, which some reports had placed as high as 60.
?This heartbreaking and inhuman incident has no precedent in the country?s history of war,? the ministry said in a statement condemning the attack. ?This is a place where sick and wounded people are brought to be cared for.?
Neither the hospital nor anyone associated with it was involved in political or military activities, the ministry said.
The explosion caused heavy damage to the hospital, which The Associated Press described as a 10-bed facility.
?The hospital is totally destroyed and cannot be used anymore,? said Din Mohammad Darwish, a spokesman for the governor?s office in Logar Province.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, and the Taliban denied any involvement. ?We strongly condemn this inhuman attack which was carried out by some other elements who are trying to defame the Taliban and blame us for doing this,? a Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said by cellphone from an undisclosed location.
Mr. Darwish said a sports utility vehicle filled with explosives detonated at about 10:30 a.m. in front of the Azra District public hospital, about 40 miles southeast of Kabul. Local officials initially reported that the blast was the result of a suicide attack, but Mr. Darwish said the vehicle appeared to have been parked and abandoned before it exploded.
Insurgent activity has been on the rise in the province. Attacks in the first two weeks of June surpassed the figure for the entire month of May, according to the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, which tracks insurgent activity. Coalition forces have also increased the number of night raids in the province searching for Taliban leaders. Last week, a Taliban leader and another insurgent were killed in an airstrike in the Charkh district, according to NATO reports.
The leader, Khalil, was involved in coordinating and carrying out attacks against Afghan government officials and was supported by both the Taliban and the Haqqani networks, NATO said. Other night raids last week in the districts of Charkh and Baraki Barak captured several individuals with suspected ties to the Haqqani network and a leader with the Hezb-E Islami Gulbuddin insurgent group, reflecting the range of varying insurgent networks active in the province.
According to NATO, the Haqqani network, a particularly brutal group based in the tribal areas of Pakistan, was responsible for the May 2 suicide attack on the national military hospital in Kabul, which left 6 dead and 20 wounded.
Saturday?s attack comes a day after a bicycle rigged with explosives blew up in an outdoor market in the northern Afghanistan province of Kunduz, killing at least 10, including a police officer.
While violence was expected to increase in the warmer summer months, civilians have borne the heaviest toll so far, even as NATO casualties are down slightly from a year ago. The United Nations said that May was the deadliest month for Afghan civilians since it began keeping count in 2007, with 368 civilian deaths.
Most of the casualties, 82 percent, were caused by Taliban and other militants, while 12 percent were caused by NATO troops and Afghan forces; in 6 percent of the cases, it was not clear who was responsible.
Sharifullah Sahak contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/world/asia/26afghanistanweb.html?_r=3&partner=rss&emc=rss
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