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Blast Kills 14 Children

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The Associated Press

Published: December 29, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan - A single-file line of schoolchildren walked past a military checkpoint as a bomb-loaded truck veered toward them and exploded, ending the lives of 14 young Afghans in a heartbreaking flash captured by a U.S. military security camera.

The video shot Sunday shows an SUV slowly weaving through sandbag barriers at a military checkpoint just as a line of schoolchildren, most wearing white caps, comes into view.

They walk along a pathway between the street and a wall, several of them pausing for a few seconds in a group before moving forward again. The vehicle moves toward the security camera while the children walk in the opposite direction, nearly passing the SUV when the footage ends in a fiery blast.

Photos of the bombing's aftermath showed bloodied textbooks lying on the ground beside small pairs of shoes. Afghan officials said the children were attending a final day of class for the year to find out whether they would move up to the next grade.

Abdul Rahman, a doctor at a hospital near the blast, said the children were ages 8 to 10.

The U.S. military said the attack in the eastern province of Khost killed 16 people, including 14 children, an Afghan soldier and another person - likely a private security guard that Afghan officials reported killed. The United States said 58 people were wounded.

In an angry condemnation of the attack, President Hamid Karzai said those that carried it out "cannot escape the revenge of Afghans and God's punishment."

The U.N. mission in Afghanistan and the NATO-led force also strongly condemned the attack.

The blast went off near the entrance to a police and army post, said Yacoub Khan, the deputy police chief of Khost. U.S. troops are also stationed inside the outpost, but no troops were wounded or killed in the attack.

U.S. Gen. David McKiernan, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, said he thinks the militant network run by warlord Siraj Haqqani is responsible for the attack.

"The brutality and disregard for human life by terrorists is sickening, as I continue to witness innocent men, women and children being killed and maimed in the pursuit of this pointless insurgency," McKiernan said in a statement.

Afghan officials offered a slightly lower death toll. Abdullah Fahim, spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Kabul, said eight people in total died and 51 were wounded.

Khan said he thought that only five schoolchildren had died.

It wasn't possible to reconcile the differing death tolls, though the U.S. military video seemed to support the likelihood of the higher toll.

A U.N. spokesman said the U.N. mission in Afghanistan was "appalled" at the suicide attack.

"The deaths of young children who were receiving their end-of-year education certificates are particularly galling," Dan McNorton said.

The blast in Khost province came only hours after a late-night rocket attack in Kabul on Saturday killed three teenage sisters. McNorton said the attack "also reminds us of the true impact this conflict has on those who play no part in it."

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