Kabul, Afghanistan – In a further assault on the embattled Afghan government, a suicide bomber killed six people Monday at the funeral of a provincial governor who was assassinated by the Taliban. Four senior Cabinet ministers escaped injury.
The attack occurred near a tent where more than 1,000 people had congregated in the Tani district of Khost province in eastern Afghanistan. The bombing caused carnage and chaos, and police fired in the air to control panicked mourners who feared there might be a second blast.
The funeral was for Gov. Abdul Hakim Taniwal, who was killed Sunday with two other people in a suicide attack outside his office in Gardez, the capital of Paktia province. Taniwal was the most senior official slain in a series of Taliban assaults.
The U.S. military blamed “a Taliban extremist” for the funeral bombing, but the Taliban denied it.
The back-to-back suicide attacks were the latest in a surge of violence that has left hundreds dead across Afghanistan in recent months, the bloodiest period since the U.S.-led ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime in late 2001 for sheltering Osama bin Laden. NATO announced Monday that a 10-day anti-Taliban offensive in the south has killed more than 500 militants – the most intense military confrontation in nearly five years.
The unidentified bomber in Tani, Taniwal’s ancestral home, got around 250 village militiamen and dozens of police who were providing security for the funeral.
The attacker blew himself up in front of vehicle carrying a senior police officer who may have been targeted because he has helped with operations against Taliban and al-Qaeda, said Mohammed Ayub, the Khost province police chief.
The senior police officer, deputy provincial chief Mohammed Zaman, was hospitalized with wounds that were not considered life-threatening, Ayub said. Hospital officials said that five other police who were either inside or near Zaman’s vehicle were killed.
A 12-year-old boy also was killed. At least 35 people were wounded.
The Cabinet ministers had left the funeral at the time of the attack, which took place before the burial. The ministers were about a half-mile away at the time, moving by car to a helicopter to return to Kabul, Ayub said. They included the ministers of interior, refugees, telecommunications and administrative affairs.
Ayub complained that the visiting dignitaries – including his boss, Interior Minister Zarar Ahmad Muqbal – strained security arrangements by insisting on moving to different locations for lunch and prayers.
He said this may have enabled the bomber to slip through the security cordon. He also noted that national television reported the high-level delegation would attend the funeral.
