Several killed in Afghanistan blasts

18/08/2011| IslamWeb

Several people have been killed in two separate bomb attacks in Afghanistan, one in the east and one in the west of the country.

On Thursday, a roadside bomb tore through a minibus in Herat in western Afghanistan, killing 14 people and wounding others, local officials said.

The bus, packed with passengers, was travelling between the district of Obe in Herat province and the provincial capital, said Moheyddin Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor.

Women and children were among the victims, the AFP news agency reported. The blast was possibly caused by a land mine, Noori said.

Meanwhile, a bomber attacked a US-run base used by international forces in Gardez, the capital of eastern Afghanistan's Gardez province, police and the US-led NATO coalition said.

The bomber detonated a small truck laden with explosives at the entrance to the military-civilian compound, killing two Afghan security guards, officials said.

In a statement e-mailed to the media, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the attack was carried out by a 70-year-old suicide bomber from Nuristan province in eastern Afghanistan.

A coalition spokesman told AFP that the bomber had tried to enter the base in a vehicle but had been stopped by guards.

"He was frustrated and detonated. Two Afghan-contracted guards were killed," he said.

The base in Gardez houses small groups of international troops and civilian experts known as Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT), and is one of 20 across the country run by various western nations.

PHOTO CAPTION

A convoy of trucks carry U.S. equipments in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Al-Jazeera