TheJournal.ie uses cookies. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Click here to find out more »
Dublin: 15 °C Sunday 19 May, 2013

Afghan government minister survives roadside bombing

The attack came a day after a suicide bomber killed a prominent Afghan MP. Suicide bombings and roadside attacks are the favoured weapons of the Taliban insurgency.

The Afghan national flag
The Afghan national flag
Image: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP/Press Association Images

AN AFGHAN MINISTER survived an insurgent roadside bombing today, the third attack on high profile officials in three days, a provincial governor said.

Obaidullah Obaid, the higher education minister, was travelling between the northern provinces of Baghlan and Kunduz when his motorcade hit a roadside bomb, similar to those used by Taliban insurgents.

The minister escaped unhurt but two policemen escorting his convoy were wounded, Munshi Abdul Majeed, the Baghlan governor told AFP, blaming the blast on the Taliban.

In a separate attack Sunday, a twin bombing wounded 14 people in Logar province south of Kabul. The second explosion hit security forces as they gathered to investigate the first one, police said.

The casualties were mostly police, army and intelligence investigators, police said.

The bombings came a day after a suicide attacker killed a prominent Afghan MP and former warlord, Ahmad Khan, targeting him at his daughter’s wedding party in the northern town of Aibak in Samangan province.

Sixteen other people were also killed and dozens more were wounded.

On Friday, the Laghman provincial women’s affairs director, Hanifa Safi, was killed when a bomb attached to her vehicle exploded, critically wounding her husband and daughter, police said.

Suicide attacks and roadside bombings are favoured weapons of Taliban Islamists, who have waged an insurgency against the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai since their regime was ousted in 2001.

- © AFP, 2012

Read: Afghan MP among 20 killed after suicide bombing at daughter’s wedding

Read next:

Comments (1 Comment)

  • So much for the US neocons war on terror. Afghanistan will be back to where it was before the war once troops leave. There are reports that Iraq is now forming tighter links with Iran which the US neocons now wish to invade. Violence by religious loons on even more crazy religious loons will never work. Western society became civilised by the enlightenment era of the 18th and 19th century since then the role of religion has continued to decline and human rights law evolve. Societies that live in a world of fantasy nearly always have a terrible record with human rights. We cant bomb deluded societies into becoming rational.

    Reply

Add New Comment