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Investigation ordered as villagers bury their dead

Investigators searched yesterday for the cause of a huge explosion at a warlord's secret underground arms cache in Afghanistan as officials said the death toll had risen to 29, as villagers searched for more survivors and buried their dead.

More than 70 others were injured by the blast on Monday morning which wiped out a whole neighborhood in Bachgah, a small village in Baghlan province some 180km north of the capital Kabul.

President Hamid Karzai said he was saddened by the incident, one of the deadliest since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, and ordered an investigation.

But the local commander defended himself yesterday, saying a stock of explosives destined for a road project had unexpectedly ignited, and that he was in the process of handing over his last weapons to the government.

The blast flattened half a dozen homes and damaged a mosque.

Residents were still picking body parts from the debris yesterday and searching for other bodies as stony-faced relatives buried the body of a two-year-old girl called Wahida.

Two small feet with red-painted nails protruded from a shroud of raw cotton as several men lowered her into the damp earth next to 23 other fresh graves, each marked with a stone.

Wahida's father, who was among the dozens injured in the explosion, was being treated at the province's only hospital.

Some residents seethed against warlord Jalal Bashgah, who was in a nearby town at the time of the blast, and arrived in the village yesterday morning to inspect the aftermath.

"Why did he have to keep explosives and ammunition in his house, which was so close to everyone else?" said one man. "He is responsible for a very bad thing."

Bashgah's immediate family also lived elsewhere, but the family of his two brothers living in his compound were mostly killed.

Bashgah said there were 85kg of explosives and three crates of gunpowder in the basement for use improving the rough road along the valley.

In other developments yesterday, the US military installed a new commander of its forces in the country.

Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry took charge from outgoing fellow three-star David Barno at a ceremony at the US military headquarters in Kabul.
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