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Suicide bombs tearing at ordinary Afghan families
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-12 16:33 KABUL, Afghanistan -- The 50-year-old father of eight died, shovel in hand, simply doing his job. Dressed in fluorescent orange overhauls, the blue-collar attire of a Kabul municipal employee, Nasir Ali was standing near two steel-gray trash bins when a suicide bomber threw himself at a passing vehicle 10 yards away. Shrapnel pierced Ali's skull, killing him. The bomber's target was a German Embassy vehicle but everyone inside the armored SUV escaped unharmed. The only people killed in the attack late last month were two Afghans.
Taliban suicide attacks typically target US or NATO troops, Afghan security forces or government officials, but far more bystanders usually get killed, leaving Afghan families in tatters. Late last month alone, two relatively small suicide attacks killed five people. The result was five children quitting school because their families' breadwinners died, making it impossible to pay for school costs. But often the attacks are far deadlier. A suicide attack at a dogfight outside Kandahar in February killed 102 people, including a district police chief who appeared to be the target. In July, a suicide bombing against the Indian Embassy killed dozens of civilians walking on the busy commercial street. Last month, eight Afghans died in a bombing in the east that also killed one US soldier. "I'm surprised at the tolerance of the Afghan population," said US military spokesman Col. Greg Julian, adding he would expect the ever increasing losses to trigger a greater outcry by the people or eliminate support for the Taliban. According to figures compiled by The Associated Press, there have been 384 civilians, 97 Afghan security forces and 22 NATO or US troops killed in at least 129 suicide attacks this year. In November alone, 29 civilians were killed in at least 17 suicide attacks in the country. The Taliban are believed to be responsible for the vast majority of suicide attacks, based on their claims of activity on the Internet, said Adam Raisman, a senior analyst at SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that monitors militant Web Sites. Reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar has in the past called on his fighters not to carry out attacks around civilians, apparently aware that such killings hurts the militia's cause. But US commanders have said that a younger breed of militants has replaced dozens of Taliban leaders killed in battle who care less about civilian deaths. Raisman said spokesmen for the militants often claim responsibility for attacks that kill soldiers or officials, and they often deny responsibility for attacks that kill large numbers of civilians blaming civilian casualties on Afghan, US, British and other foreign forces. The UN said in September that 1,445 Afghan civilians had been killed this year by insurgents or US- and NATO-led forces, a 40 percent increase over 2007. However, according to the UN figures, insurgents cause far more deaths than US, NATO and Afghan troops. About 55 percent, or 800 deaths, were caused by insurgents, including 142 summary executions, the UN said. Forty percent of the deaths, or 577, were caused by US, NATO or Afghan troops. The figures included all types of violence. |
