Kabul: A roadside bomb tore through a crowded market in Afghanistan`s increasingly volatile north, killing three policemen and two civilians, a police official said Friday.
Another 15 civilians were wounded yesterday in Kunduz province`s Archi town. The blast went off as residents were shopping for foods ahead of breaking the dawn-to-dusk fast observed during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the
attack, but deputy provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Aqtash
said civilians appear to have been the target.
"This was a cruel act of the enemy. There was nothing to
link these people to the coalition or to politics," Aqtash
said.
Kunduz, about 150 miles (240 kilometres) north of the
Afghan capital, Kabul, has not traditionally been a stronghold
of the Taliban, who enjoy their greatest support among ethnic
Pashtuns in the country`s southern and eastern provinces.
However, insurgents have been steadily building their
presence there since about 2007, mostly among Pashtuns who are
a minority in the area. Attacks on a key coalition supply line
running south from Tajikistan are a constant menace, along
with ambushes of German forces who help provide security.
In establishing a northern foothold, Afghan authorities
believe the Taliban use veterans from southern battlefields to
help organise local groups, sometimes with help from the
al-Qaida-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which provides
recruits from among the Uzbek minority.
"The situation is very bad and dangerous in Kunduz but
unfortunately the security officials keep saying things are
all right," Mabubullah Mabub, chairman of the Kunduz
provincial council, told The Associated Press yesterday. "Over
the last two years, the situation has been getting worse."
Bureau Report
