KABUL, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- Bomb attacks launched by the Taliban militants in Afghanistan often claim the lives of non-combatants instead of troopers, as the latest wave of strikes left three civilians dead and 25 others injured in the Taliban hotbed Helmand province on Friday.
An explosive device, according to the police, planted on a motorbike and ripped through a crowd of people who were watching dog fighting outside provincial capital Lashkar Gah turned the weekly holiday to a mourning day.
Friday like in many Muslim countries is weekly holiday in Afghanistan and the war-weary people in order to pass the time often go to picnic, hunting birds, fishing, wrestling or organize dog fighting, cock fighting and the horse riding Buzkashi.
However, in Helmand where the Afghan and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) are poised to launch a major offensive soon against Taliban insurgents, Friday's deadly bombing has sent three to grave and 25 others with more than half of whom children to hospitals.
Eighteen out of 25 sustained injuries in Lashkar Gah's bloody bombing, according to Anayatullah Ghafari, director of the provincial heath department, are children and teens.
Friday's attack follows a similar offensive in the neighboring Kandahar province, the birthplace of Taliban militants, on Thursday.
Militants loyal to the Taliban outfit carried out a suicide car bomb next to a hotel in Kandahar city, capital of Kandahar province, Thursday evening, killing six and wounding 18 others, all of them civilians.
A Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi in talks with media via cellular phone claimed of responsibility, saying the target were contractors provided logistic supply to the NATO-led troops based in Kandahar.
He also added that 15 drivers and contractors based in the hotel were killed in the attack.
However, local authorities disputed the claim, stressing that all the victims were ordinary people.
This was not the first time that the Taliban militants targeted entertainment places.
In February 2008, similar bombing against a crowd of dog fighting fans in Kandahar province left more than 100 people, mostly civilians, dead or injured.
Taliban outfit, during its six-year reign ousted in late 2001 by the U.S.-led military campaign, had outlawed all kinds of entertainment such as dog fighting, kite flying, movie, theater, music and television.
Civilian casualties in Afghanistan, according to a report issued by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), were 2,412 in 2009 against 2,118 in 2008.
Majority of the fatalities, according to the report, are due to the Taliban-linked attacks and the figure is expected to further increase as experts predict of more violence this year.
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Afghan policemen keep watch at the site of a blast in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province February 5, 2010. A bomb planted in a motorcycle in southern Afghanistan's most dangerous province killed three people on Friday. (XinHua/Reuters Photo)
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KANDAHAR, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of the bombing attack Friday in Afghanistan's restive southern part has risen to three, said the local police. Full story
Bombing kills 2, injures 26 in S Afghanistan
KANDAHAR, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- A bomb attack Friday rocked Afghanistan's restive southern part, killing two civilians and injuring 26 others.
"Militants detonated a bomb with remote controller when people were watching dog fighting near Lashkar Gah, capital city of the Helmand province," Kamaludin Khan, the deputy chief of the provincial police, told Xinhua. Full story
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KABUL, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Two suicide bombers infiltrated Zabul 's provincial capital Qalat in south Afghanistan Monday morning and wounded one police constable while one attacker was killed, Deputy to provincial police chief Ghulam Jilani Khan Farahi said.Full story
