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AFGHANISTAN

CHILD USED IN AFGHAN BOMB ATTACK

Jun 26, 2011
The Associated Press
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/06/26/afghanistan-bombings.html

Afghan security officials say insurgents gave an eight-year-old Afghan girl a concealed bomb and detonated it as she approached police in the country's south, killing her.

Afghan authorities said Sunday no one else was hurt in the bomb attack Saturday in the Char Chino district of Uruzgan province.

The insurgency occasionally uses children in its attacks in Afghanistan to avoid suspicion.

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In May, a 12-year-old boy detonated a vest packed with explosives inside a bazaar in the Barmal district of the eastern province of Paktika, killing four civilians.

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It was the second bomb attack reported on Saturday.

A car bomb blew up outside a medical clinic in eastern Afghanistan killing 38 people.

The explosion caused the collapse of a 10-bed medical clinic in Logar province, injuring more than 50 people. Patients, visitors and clinic workers were among the casualties.

The Taliban denied responsibility for the hospital bombing. Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the movement, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that "this attack was not done by our fighters."

Dr. Mohammad Zaref Nayebkhail, the provincial health director, said the clinic guards tried to prevent the bomber from driving into the compound.

"The driver didn't stop and he entered the compound and reached the main building of the health centre, where the truck detonated,"

said Nayebkhail.

The Afghan government condemned the attack.

"Our health centres are not the place of political and military activities and our staff do not engage in political activities,"

said Dr Soraya Daleel, Afghanistan's minister of public health.

"This is an inhumane action,"

she said.

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Late Friday, another blast — this one caused by a bicycle rigged with explosives — ripped through a bazaar in the Khanabad districk of Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 10 people, including a police officer.

At least 24 people were wounded in the attack, according to an Interior Ministry statement.

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