KABUL, Afghanistan – A roadside bomb killed 10 laborers and wounded
28 on Tuesday as they were driving to work to clean streams in southern
Afghanistan, officials said. Separately, an Afghan deputy intelligence
chief escaped an attempted suicide bombing claimed by the Taliban in
the nation's capital.
The roadside bomb tore
through a truck carrying the workers through restive Kandahar province,
said Dr. Qayoum Pakhla, the director of Kandahar Hospital. The local
government in the region employed the men to work cleaning rivers and
streams there.
"I could see people calling for
help and crying," said one of the survivors, who gave his name as
Sabdullah. "I saw some of my friends' dead bodies. I was helpless at
that moment."
There was no immediate claim of
responsibility for the attack, which comes as insurgents in Afghanistan
recently started their spring offensive.
Meanwhile,
Ahmad Ziad, a deputy chief at the National Directorate for Security,
was unharmed in an attempted suicide bombing that targeted his convoy
as he was traveling to work on Tuesday morning, Kabul police said.
Ziad's
bodyguards opened fire on a suspicious sport utility vehicle that was
coming at the convoy, wounding the driver and stopping the speeding SUV
laden with explosives, the police said.
The
driver was arrested and hospitalized under guard, pending an
investigation. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed
responsibility for the attempted bombing in a message to The Associated
Press.
The attacks came after the Afghan
intelligence agency said Monday that the reclusive leader of the Afghan
Taliban has disappeared from a suspected hideout in Pakistan and has
been out of contact with his commanders for days — adding further
questions about Mullah Mohammad Omar after a media report said he has
been killed.
The Taliban denied the claim on
the Afghan news channel Tolo that Omar was shot dead while being moved
inside Pakistan with the help of a former Pakistani intelligence
official. A Taliban spokesman countered that Omar was alive and was
somewhere inside Afghanistan.
The conflicting
reports, however, underscore the complicated disputes and suspicions
between Afghanistan and Pakistan as the U.S. intensifies pressure on
both sides: urging Afghan forces to step up efforts against militants
and pushing Pakistani authorities to help unravel the networks that
aided Osama bin Laden.
Pakistan's foreign
minister, meanwhile, was in Kabul for talks with Afghan President Hamid
Karzai, who has been increasingly outspoken in the need for Pakistan to
take a stronger role in the fight against militant groups. Trilateral
talks on security were scheduled to begin Tuesday between Afghanistan,
Pakistan and the United States.
There also has
been much speculation that the U.S. might ramp up efforts to kill or
capture the Taliban leader after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden
on May 2 in neighboring Pakistan. President Barack Obama has said he
would order another covert military raid if it was necessary to stop
terrorist attacks. AP
