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.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
RSS