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Taliban Attack Bus; 30 Passengers Killed

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Los Angeles Times

Published: October 20, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan - Taliban militants seized a civilian bus in volatile southern Afghanistan and executed at least 30 passengers, beheading some of them, officials said Sunday.

The attack took place in Kandahar province, which was the home base of the militant Islamic movement before it was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.

The incident illustrated the extreme danger of travel in the Afghan countryside, even on main roads such as the one where the bus was commandeered. Many of those aboard the bus were women and children.

Violence in Afghanistan this year has hit its highest levels since the conflict began.

Many of those killed have been combatants, but civilian deaths in 2008 so far have been estimated by the United Nations at more than 1,300.

The district where the bus attack took place, Maywand, is strategically important.

Western troops have been struggling to choke off infiltration routes that lead into it from Helmand province, which is the center of Afghanistan's drug trade.

Many Taliban fighters based in Pakistan are believed to cross the border into Helmand and make their way from there via Maywand to the area surrounding Kandahar, the south's main city, about 40 miles to the east.

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