Suicide blast rocks Afghan capital

At least one person has been killed and several injured in a suicide bomb attack in Kabul, the Afghan capital, officials have said.

The blast occurred on Tuesday outside the Heetal hotel in Wazir Akbar Khan, the diplomatic district of Kabul, said Ahmed Bilal, a national security directorate officer at the scene.

Buildings shook and windows rattled hundreds of metres from the hotel, which is popular with foreigners.

Steve Chao, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Kabul, said: "This has happened in an area that has a lot of foreign offices - it is near the US embassy.

"We understand that, at the time of the blast, Afghanistan's former vice-president Ahmad Zia Massoud, was also in the area. We understand that he survived the attack."

Reports say that the blast was heard by government officials, politicians and foreign representatives gathered in another part of the city for an anti-corruption conference hosted by Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president.

The three-day meeting, Karzai's first official act since he was sworn in as president for a second term, is a response to calls from his Western backers to make the country's government more transparent.

US and members of the Nato military alliance, which both have thousands of troops in Afghanistan, have welcomed the conference, but have also expressed doubts as to what will be achieved.

"We think the conference is certainly a step in the right direction in that it's important to see the government of Afghanistan addressing corruption issues," John Groch, a US embassy spokesman, said.

"At the same time, however, we're eager to see the government move forward with action."

Karzai has come under growing international pressure to take a tough line against government officials suspected of corruption, particularly in the wake of the fraud-tainted presidential poll that took place in August.

Karzai was declared the winner by default when Abdullah Abdullah, his main challenger, pulled out, citing irregularities.

Kai Eide, the senior United Nations representative in Afghanistan, had said earlier in October that there had been "widespread fraud" during the elections.

The calls for the Afghan government to crack down on corruption comes as thousands more US troops prepare to deploy to the country to battle fighters loyal to the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Barack Obama, the US president, last week ordered 30,000 more soldiers to be sent to the country, following a request by the senior commander of US and Nato forces for more boots on the ground.

The US's senior military officer said on Monday he was increasingly concerned about the threat posed by Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters sheltering on the Pakistani side of the Afghan border.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said during a visit to Afghanistan that violence across the country was likely to become more severe in the coming months, with fighters holding the upper hand across about a third of Afghan provinces.

"I remain deeply concerned by the growing level of collusion between the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda and other extremist groups taking refuge across the border in Pakistan," Mullen said.

"Getting at this network, which is now more entrenched, will be a far more difficult task than it was just one year ago.

"The insurgency has grown more violent, more pervasive, more sophisticated," he said.

Mullen's comments came as a senior US commander in Afghanistan warned that the extra troop deployment would likely take longer than expected.

Lieutenant General David Rodriguez said that logistical challenges meant it would probably take nine to 11 months to deploy all the new troops to the region.

Obama's original plan had envisaged the additional deployment being in place within six months.

The initial vanguard of the 30,000 extra US troops – a 1,500-strong force of Marines - is expected to deploy to Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand later this week.

Washington has been trying to press the Pakistani government to push harder against Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, who have long used the country as a refuge.

Al Jazeera

Quake shakes Pakistan, Afghanistan

A earthquake of magnitude 6.2 has shaken buildings across northern Afghanistan and Pakistan.The earthquake was centred in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan, according to the US Geological Survey.

The quake was felt in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, Al Jazeera's correspondents reported.

There were no initial reports of damage or casualties from the quake, which struck at about 12.21am Afghan time on Friday (19:51GMT Thursday), although information from rural areas is expected to take some time to filter out.

Alan Fisher, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad, said: "It shook large parts of Islamabad, for at least eight or nine seconds and then there was a very strong aftershock immediately afterwards.

"It wasn't just felt here in Islamabad, but also in Kabul and Karachi.

"The concern, of course, will be how much damage has it done to the epicentre and the towns there.

"At the moment, as the Pakistani army is fighting a major offensive in South Waziristan, they may have to put a great deal of resources into the area where the earthquake may have caused damage," Al Jazeera's correspondent said.

"That might affect the operation ... not just in South Waziristan but the security operation that has been mounted all around the country."

James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Kabul, said: "The whole building where I am shook. It's a place where we have a lot of seismic activity, a place prone to earthquakes.

"Those people who are there in the area where the quake struck will be on their own for a very long time. It is a highly mountainous area, so initial impressions are that there won't be a huge number of casualties.

"On the other hand, if it has hit a village, and there are casualties, it is going to take a very long time to get them assistance."

A 7.6-magnitude earthquake in northwest Pakistan and Kashmir in October 2005 killed 74,000 people and displaced 3.5 million others.

Source: Al Jazeera (English)

Explosion rocks Kabul

AN explosion rocked the Afghan capital Kabul but the cause was not immediately clear, witnesses said.

The blast occurred shortly after 8.30am (3pm AEDT) in the heavily fortified centre of the city.

Witnesses said it took place near the Ministry of Interior, which is close to other major government buildings and a busy shopping district.

A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul confirmed a blast had taken place but gave no further details.

It is the fourth blast to hit the capital since mid-August, just before presidential elections were held on August 20 amid a campaign of violence and intimidation conducted by Taliban insurgents.

Most recently, six Italian soldiers were killed and another three wounded in a suicide attack on a military convoy on the road to Kabul's international airport on September 17.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack, which also killed 10 Afghan civilians and wounded more than 50 in one of the worst single attacks on the more than 100,000 NATO and US-led troops serving in Afghanistan.

Foreign military deaths in Afghanistan are at record levels - more than 400 in 2009 - and the mounting number of Western troops coming home in body bags has sent support for the war plummeting in Europe and the United States.

On September 8, one attack in Kabul, home to significant numbers of Western officials, troops and aid workers, killed three civilians outside the city's military airport.

Two days before the presidential and provincial council elections, another suicide car bomb targeted a NATO convoy near a US military base in the capital, killing 10 people including a NATO soldier.

Source: The Australian

Suicide bomber targets NATO base in Kabul

A SUICIDE car bomb exploded outside the NATO military headquarters in the Afghan capital Kabul today, killing three people and wounding at least 70.

The attack in the heart of the city comes just days before August 20 presidential and provincial council elections.

The blast was at the main gate of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and was caused by a suicide bomber, defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told reporters at the site.

ISAF personnel are believed to be among the casualties.

Also in the area are the embassies of India, Spain, Italy and the United States, and the presidential palace is about 200 metres away.

ISAF spokesman Brigadier General Eric Tremblay said there were casualties among the International Security Assistance Force as well as some Afghan civilians.

"The bomber was stopped by Afghan security at the first gate," he said.

The explosion was outside the main gate of the ISAF headquarters, where hundreds of troops from various countries are stationed.

The base includes the living quarters and offices of General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander of more than 100,000 international troops in Afghanistan.

About 6200 ISAF troops are stationed in Kabul at various bases.

A health ministry spokesman said 57 wounded, including 12 women and a child, were in the main civilian hospital. Most of them had superficial wounds, he said.

About 20 others were undergoing treatment in the military hospital, a defence ministry official said.

The Taliban, which is leading a mounting insurgency, has not threatened to attack the polls but called on Afghans to boycott the election and join their campaign for “independence” instead.

It was the first suicide attack on the city in months, after a spate of such blasts last year claimed by the Taliban and other insurgent groups.

Eight rockets struck the Afghan capital on Tuesday, including one that landed near the US embassy, wounding a man and a child, the government said, raising tensions ahead of the elections.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the dawn attacks, saying its fighters targeted Afghan soldiers and the Kabul international airport.

The city has not seen a significant attack in months but there are fears the Taliban and other insurgents will strike in the lead-up to the August 20 elections.

Source: The Australian

Bomb kills Afghan governor, NATO soldier shot dead

Undated hand out picture provided
by the Afghan Governemnt shows
the slain governor of the province
of Logar, Abdullah Wardak

An Afghan policeman and a man stand
next to the wreckage of a car belonging
to Afghanistan's Logar province governor
that was hit by a blast in Paghman,
west of Kabul, September 13, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A bomb attack killed an Afghan provincial governor and his bodyguard near the governor's home on Saturday, officials said.

The blast killed Abdullah Wardak, the governor of Logar province, said Zemeri Bashary, the Interior Ministry spokesman.

Wardak, a former Cabinet member, was in charge of a province right next to Kabul. Afghanistan has 34 provinces, each headed by a provincial governor.

Militants frequently target government leaders in their campaign of violence against the Afghan authorities. Meanwhile, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said one of its soldiers was killed Friday when insurgents fired on a patrol. No other details were released. More than 4,100 people have died in insurgency related violence this year, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.

Source: AP

40 dead in Indian embassy blast in Afghan capital

By Amir Shah

KABUL, Afghanistan - A car bomb ripped through the front wall of the Indian Embassy in central Kabul on Monday, killing 40 people in the deadliest attack in Afghanistan's capital since the fall of the Taliban, officials said.

The massive explosion detonated by a suicide bomber damaged two embassy vehicles entering the compound, near where dozens of Afghan men line up every morning to apply for visas.

The embassy is located on a busy, tree-lined street near Afghanistan's Interior Ministry in the city center that is protected on both ends by police checkpoints. Several nearby shops were damaged or destroyed in the blast, and smoldering ruins covered the street. The explosion rattled much of the Afghan capital.

Shortly after the attack, a woman ran out of a Kabul hospital screaming, crying and hitting her face with both of her hands. Her two children, a girl named Lima and a boy named Mirwais, had been killed. Read more ...

Source: AP

Muslims Against Sharia unequivocally condemn homicide bombing in Kabul.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.

May the homicide bomber rot in hell for eternity. May his accomplices join him soon.

Afghan journalist Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh at a Kabul court

KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan's appeal court referred Sunday a reporter sentenced to death on blasphemy charges to hospital for medical tests after he said he was tortured by security forces who fractured his nose.

Perwiz Kambakhsh, arrested late October and sentenced to death in January, has denied the charges and alleged security forces used torture to force him into a confession.

His defence lawyer, Mohammad Afzal Nuristani, repeated the allegation in court Sunday and requested the 23-year-old reporter be referred to hospital for forensic tests.

"My client has been tortured while in custody. He has suffered a fracture to his nose and damage to his wrist," he said. Read more ...

Source: AFP
H/T: Shariah Finance Watch

Muslims Against Sharia Demand Release of Ghows Zalmay

Muslims Against Sharia condemn Afghan parliament and law enforcement agency responsible for the arrest of Ghows Zalmay for the new translation of the Koran into Dari, and demand his immediate release.

The Afghan constitution enshrines freedom of expression, and Mr. Zalmay's arrest is unconstitutional.

Muslims Against Sharia request that NATO commanders and the U.S. State Department diplomats intervene on behalf of Mr. Zalmay and secure his immediate release.

More than seven hundred coalition troops gave their lives so the people of Afghanistan could enjoy Freedom and Democracy, not to be thrown in jail for expressing their religious views.

Read more ...

Afghan Koran Distributor Arrested

By Alix Kroeger

The distributor of a new translation of the Koran has been arrested after complaints from religious scholars that the new edition was un-Islamic.

Former journalist Ghows Zalmay is also the spokesman for Afghanistan's attorney general.

He was arrested on the border on Sunday while trying to flee into Pakistan.

Demonstrators protested in two Afghan provinces against the new translation of the Koran into Dari, one of Afghanistan's two official languages.

Religious scholars are outraged at the new edition of the Muslim holy book.

They say that it is un-Islamic, that it misinterprets verses about alcohol, begging, homosexuality and adultery.

They also complain that it does not contain the original version in Arabic as a parallel text for comparison.

Both houses of the Afghan parliament have held emergency debates.

Senators have called for Mr Zalmay and the translator, himself a mullah, to be punished.

One said Mr Zalmay was "worse than Salman Rushdie", whose book, The Satanic Verses, caused widespread outrage in the Islamic world.

Another said Mr Zalmay was under the protection of a foreign security company.

In the northern city of Taloqan 1,500 university students took to the streets in protest, while in the south-east province of Nimruz 1,000 local people, including several mullahs, took part in a demonstration.

The Afghan constitution enshrines freedom of expression, but for many Afghans that freedom has clear limits and they do not include making interpretive translations of the Koran.

Source: BBC
Hat tip: Redneck Texan