A car bomb on Friday killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens more who had gathered to watch a wrestling match in southern Afghanistan, officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which went off outside the match venue in Lashkar Gah — capital of the province of Helmand — in front of a crowd that included local lawmakers.
The attack, which followed a suicide blast in Kabul on Wednesday that was claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, underlined the continued threat of violence across much of Afghanistan with the approach of spring, when fighting tends to pick up.
Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said the driver detonated his bomb after he was prevented from entering the venue.
He said at least 14 people had been killed and at least 47 wounded. The casualties included children.
Italian aid group Emergency, which runs a major trauma hospital in the city, said 35 wounded had been brought in, as well as four who were dead on arrival.
The Taliban controls large areas of Helmand, the source of much of Afghanistan’s opium crop, but government forces, backed by heavy US airstrikes, have succeeded in preventing Lashkar Gah from falling and have made advances in some districts.
The city, which last year came under threat from the insurgents, had been relatively quiet in recent months following offensives by security forces, and fighting has shifted to other provinces, including neighboring Farah on the border with Iran.
The blast occurred as Afghans were celebrating the victory of their national cricket team in a match that qualified them for next year’s World Cup.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has offered to hold peace talks with the Taliban, but there has so far been little sign the insurgents are willing to end their fight to drive out foreign forces and re-establish their version of strict Islamic law.
Separately, Afghan Special Forces arrested a French woman among a group of IS fighters captured in the northern province of Jowzjan, an official from the Afghan National Directorate of Security said.
If confirmed, the woman would be a rare example of a European militant fighter in Afghanistan. While many foreign fighters have been active in the nation, most are from neighboring countries like Pakistan or Uzbekistan.
Although there has been concern that foreign fighters from the Middle East could turn up in Afghanistan following the defeats inflicted on IS in Syria and Iraq, US and Afghan officials say there has been very little firm evidence.
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
RSS