Multiple Blasts Kill Dozens in Afghanistan
As the country awaited news about last week's presidential election, Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar was rocked by a series of bombings that killed at least 36 people, some of them women and children. In addition, four American soldiers were killed elsewhere in southern Afghanistan, pushing the death toll for foreign troops higher in 2009 than any year since the invasion began in 2001.
As the country awaited news about last week’s presidential election, Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar was rocked by a series of bombings that killed at least 36 people, some of them women and children. In addition, four American soldiers were killed elsewhere in southern Afghanistan, pushing the death toll for foreign troops higher in 2009 than any year since the invasion began in 2001. –KA
Dig, Root, GrowTimes Online:
At least 36 people died in a multiple car bombing and four US soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb today in a day of violence in southern Afghanistan that overshadowed the release of the first partial results of a presidential election.
[…] The five simultaneous car bombs in the southern city of Kandahar destroyed the offices of a Japanese construction company, killing women and children and wounding at least 64 people in the bloodiest such attack since July last year.
The bloodshed is likely to prompt further questions about the international mission in Afghanistan following an election last week that was marred by Taleban attacks, low turnout, and allegations of massive fraud.
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Militants from the Islamic State group have declared war on Afghanistan's Shiites; IS claims responsibility for Friday's attack.
The agreement could see the withdrawal of all American and allied forces in the next 14 months — but it could also easily unravel.
A contested result could spark violence as supporters of presidential contestants are heavily armed, with long-standing grudges.
Since 2001, the U.S. has spent more than $103 billion on the Asian country—more than it spent on the entire European continent after World War II. And there is no end in sight for the debacle that George W. Bush began and Barack Obama continued.
Former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah is leading Ashraf Ghani in Afghanistan's presidential election by 11 percentage points after half of the ballots were counted.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday condemned a U.S. airstrike in an eastern border province that allegedly killed a woman and two of her children.
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