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80 Die In Afghan Suicide Blast

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By M. KARIM FAIEZ and LAURA KING, Los Angeles Times

Published: February 18, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan - An anti-Taliban militia leader was the apparent target of a suicide bombing Sunday in southern Afghanistan that left at least 80 people dead and dozens injured, authorities said.

The bombing at a dog-fighting match just outside Kandahar was thought to have been the deadliest single suicide attack since the Taliban movement was driven from power more than six years ago.

Authorities said the apparent target was militia leader Abdul Hakim Jan, who was killed in the explosion. Some of the casualties might have been caused when Jan's bodyguards opened fire after the blast, although there were no assailants in sight, witnesses said.

A tightly packed crowd of hundreds of men and boys had gathered in a dirt field on the city's edge to watch the dogfight when the bomber struck.

Dog-fighting, though widely decried as barbaric, is popular in Afghanistan. It was banned under the Taliban but made a comeback after the movement was toppled by the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

Witnesses said the attack occurred without warning.

Kandahar's governor, Asadullah Khalid, told reporters that 80 people had been killed. A spokesman for the Health Ministry said dozens of others were hurt.

Khalid blamed the attack on "the enemies of Afghanistan," a phrase authorities use to describe the Taliban.

Purported spokesmen for the militia denied the bombing. Local officials suggested the high civilian death count might have deterred the group from claiming responsibility.
FATAL EXPLOSION
•The target of a deadly suicide bombing in Afghanistan was anti-Taliban militia leader Abdul Hakim Jan, a former provincial police chief who had defied the Taliban as the austere Islamist movement rose to prominence in the 1990s.

•More recently, he led a locally recruited force that worked in concert with Afghan police and soldiers. His fighters operated in Arghandab, an area just north of Kandahar that was seized by the Taliban last year, then recaptured by Afghan and NATO troops.

•Before Sunday's attack, the deadliest single bombing occurred three months ago in Baghlan. About 70 people, including dozens of schoolchildren and six lawmakers, died.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times

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