30 Killed in Southern Afghan Bus Explosion

30 Killed in Southern Afghan Bus Explosion
By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA and TAIMOOR SHAH
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: September 29, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/world/asia/30afghan.html?ref=global-home


KABUL, Afghanistan — An intercity bus crowded with passengers struck a roadside bomb in the contested southern province of Kandahar on Tuesday and exploded, killing 30 civilians and wounding 39 others, the Interior Ministry said.

The bus was traveling on the dangerous main road from Herat, a large city in the west, to the city of Kandahar. It was crossing an area lined with trees at 9 a.m. when it encountered a NATO roadblock run by soldiers clearing the road of roadside bombs. The bus was told to drive along the dirt culvert next to the road, but that was where the bomb was hidden, said Niaz Muhammad Sarhadi, the governor of Zhari, a nearby district.

The Interior Ministry said that 10 children, 7 women and 13 men were killed.

Mr. Sarhadi placed the death toll at 15, with 19 wounded, but said that some of the injuries were serious and that the death toll could rise.

There was no initial claim of responsibility for the attack, but officials blamed Taliban militants, who set improvised explosive devices in the area almost daily.

One survivor said that the explosion completely destroyed the bus, a main form of intercity transportation for Afghans.

“An explosion hit the bus. I don’t know what happened,” Lal Jan, a survivor, told The Associated Press at Kandahar’s hospital. “When I came to, I got out of the bus and saw that the bus was totally wrecked.”

The road is a well-traveled route for NATO and Afghan government military convoys, and civilian vehicles are often hit as well. On Monday, a civilian car struck a roadside bomb in the same district, Maiwand, and three civilians, including a woman, were killed.