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Taliban: Afghan Blast Targeted Americans

Posted on: Saturday, 6 December 2003, 06:00 CST

A bomb exploded in a bazaar in this southern Afghan city Saturday, wounding about 20 people, at least three seriously, in an attack that a Taliban spokesman said targeted - but missed - American soldiers who shop there.

The bomb, apparently placed on a motorcycle, detonated at about 12:30 p.m. outside a hotel in the Herat bazaar in Kandahar's commercial center.

Two shops were completely demolished. Broken glass from the shattered hotel front and victims' blood lay around the scene, which was quickly sealed off by U.S. troops and Afghan police. All the injured appeared to be Afghans, the U.S.-led military coalition said in an e-mail from its headquarters at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul.

"Taliban and al-Qaida carried out this terrorist attack. We are trying to catch those responsible," Kandahar city police chief Mohammad Hashim said.

Later, Taliban spokesman Mullah Abdul Hakim Latifi said the bombings was carried out by fighters from the hard-line Islamic movement, ousted from power by U.S. forces two years ago. Speaking with The Associated Press in Kandahar by satellite telephone, he said the Taliban bomb was meant for U.S. soldiers shopping at the bazaar, but went off later than planned.

Latifi, a former Taliban official, last week accurately announced that Taliban had freed a Turkish engineer after holding him hostage for a month.

Qasim Khan, a doctor at Kandahar hospital, said three people seriously injured by the blast and flying glass had been taken to the U.S. military base at the airport for treatment.

Kandahar is the former stronghold of Taliban, whose supporters this year have mounted a wave of deadly attacks on soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition, Afghan officials and aid workers.

On Saturday, a U.S. military spokesman said special forces had raided the compound of a renegade Afghan commander suspected in the attacks on coalition soldiers, blowing up weapons and detaining suspects.

It was unclear if there were any casualties.

U.S. troops found hidden storage compartments containing hundreds of 107mm rockets, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank and anti-personnel mines and several howitzers.

The compound was near Gardez, the capital of Paktia province in the southeast on Friday, Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said during a news conference at Bagram. Hilferty said several people were detained for questioning but did not elaborate.

The compound was used by Mullah Jalani, an associate of renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister who has joined the resurgent Taliban in vowing to battle foreign troops and topple U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai, Hilferty said.

On Wednesday, two U.S. soldiers were wounded in Kandahar when a suspected Taliban militant threw a grenade at their military vehicle in a busy square.

Residents say American soldiers have been patrolling the city since a car bomb exploded outside U.N. offices here on Nov. 11, injuring two people, including a U.N. security guard. The Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack.

The U.S. military said coalition troops on Thursday found hundreds of rockets, mortars and mines neatly stacked in Kandahar prison, where 41 Taliban prisoners mounted a spectacular escape in October.

The American military also is concerned that Taliban could target the loya jirga, or grand council, which is to meet in the capital Kabul next week to debate and ratify a new constitution for Afghanistan.

The violence has seriously hampered development work across the south and east of the country, undermining efforts to rebuild and democratize it after more than two decades of war.

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