wfn.org | Blast rocks Kabul foreign quarter

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

August 30, 2004
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief APD
Fax +41-61-261 61 18
APD@stanet.ch
http://www.stanet.ch/APD
CH-4003 Basel, Schweiz

Blast rocks Kabul foreign quarter

Kabul, Afghanistan, 29.08.2004/BBC/Reuters/APD	  At least seven people have

been killed by a powerful explosion building in the Shar-e-Naw area in
central
Kabul, where aid agencies are also located, Afghan officials say.

The blast went off near a building housing a private US security firm that
works
for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the officials said. The blast also
destroyed
several vehicles and damaged buildings in the area, housing a number of aid
agencies, including two buildings of the Adventist Development and Relief
Agency (ADRA-Afghanistan).

A huge crater was seen outside the Taleban militants told Reuters news
agency
it was a suicide car bomb attack by one of their fighters. The agency quoted

Taleban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi as saying the bomber died in the
attack.

Al-Jazeera satellite television said it had received telephone calls from
Taleban spokesmen who said the attack had targeted US forces, not Afghans.

It was not immediately clear how many Americans were among the dead, but
reports said at least two foreigners were killed. The death toll is likely
to rise,
officials said.

The BBC's Andrew North reports that the sound of the explosion, which
happened just before 1800 local time (1330 GMT), was heard across Kabul.

The Kabul attack came just hours after an explosion at a school in southern
Afghanistan killed at least 10 people, many of them children, the US
military
said.

The building that was hit in Kabul is used by Dyncorp, an American security
firm which provides bodyguards for President Karzai and also helps with
police training.

A western security adviser whose office is nearby said there was now a huge
crater outside the building. Police rushed to seal off the area, as fire and

smoke billowed up and sirens wailed. Witnesses said there was extensive
damage.

According to a Swiss staff member of ADRA Afghanistan, the windows and
doors of the two ADRA buildings nearby have been damages by the blast.
Several debris from the car bomb lie in the garden area. Office and
apartment
rooms are full of glass splinters. Fortunately only one staff member have
been
slightly injures by pieces of broken glass.

There have been growing fears that militants opposed to the Afghan
government
will carry out bomb attacks in Kabul ahead of elections in October, BBC
correspondent Andres North says.

********************
Also on the Web: http://www.stanet.ch/APD/news/411.html
********************