Suicide bomber kills 4 in attack at market in eastern Afghanistan
A suicide bomber blew himself up Monday at an outdoor market in the eastern Afghanistan province of Laghman, killing four people and injuring 12, a spokesman for the provincial governor said.
The blast occurred at about noon in the village of Alishang, northeast of the capital city of Kabul, said spokesman Faizan Patan.
The bomber detonated an explosive device at the market, which was next to a local hotel, Patan said.
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Afghan police say Taliban kidnap 50, including officers
Taliban fighters kidnapped 50 people - including police officers - in northeastern Afghanistan on Sunday, police said.
The officers were among a group of people in four vehicles traveling in the Chapa Dara district, said Kunar province Police Chief Khalilullah Zaiyee.
The captured were unarmed and on leave, he said.
A Taliban spokesman said there were no civilians among the group captured.
"We have got documents and evidence that shows all the 50 captured people are policemen and they have also (confessed) during the investigations too," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told CNN.
Read the full storyBombs in Afghanistan kill more than 20 civilians
A vehicle headed to a wedding party and a school bus carrying students hit insurgent-planted bombs in southwestern
Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing 22 people and wounding 20, authorities said.
The incidents, which occurred in different districts of Nimruz province,
are the latest in Afghanistan to result from improvised explosive devices -
regarded as the top killer of civilians in the war-weary nation.
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Working instead of school, the boy mechanics of Kabul
The grease-covered orange overalls can't hide 14-year-old Nazer Ahmad's frail frame. As he leans under the hood of a wrecked car, torn plastic sandals on his feet, I know I cannot possibly understand the life this young boy is forced to lead in war-torn Afghanistan -
where jobs are few, pay is appalling, and young children must work rather than
go to school and play with their friends.
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Taliban rejects U.N. report on Afghan casualties
The Taliban on Thursday rejected a United Nations report that blamed it and other insurgent groups for 76 percent of all civilian casualties in Afghanistan.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the report, released Tuesday, was part of a Pentagon decision to create a propaganda campaign against the Taliban, accusing the group of attacks on civilians. He said the campaign is aimed at turning the people against the Taliban, and he said the Taliban reject that. FULL POST
'I don't want to go home'
The Qambar Square camp in Kabul’s west is now home to more than 1,200 families from across Afghanistan.
Bibi Hawa lost her husband, daughter and son to war. She now lives with her three grandchildren in a tent at a refugee camp in Kabul.
The old woman cries as she says, “I fled from Marjah in Helmand province because of the fighting. I don’t want to go home any more. I lost my family there and I don’t believe the war will end in our province.”
She is dressed in old clothes and wrapped in an old blanket. As we talk she frequently asks for money.
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