Bomber Hits Outside Afghan Training Center

[maddezmom]

Afghan military training center in Kabul, killing five people and wounding 19, the Defense Ministry said.

The attacker struck where officers and soldiers of the Afghan National Army were waiting outside the training facility to take buses home, ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed Zaher Azimi said.

Such suicide attacks are rare in Kabul. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Police said U.S. soldiers and NATO peacekeepers had blocked access to the site on the Jalalabad Road on the eastern side of the Afghan capital. Three army buses also were damaged.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050928/ap_on_re_as/afghan_blast

more last throes of the Taliban?

[sabra]

1. but but but, they had elections

and all violence was only supposed to happen during the run off to the elections? I am confused :-)

:sarcasm:

[enigma000]

3. Obviously he was mistaken about the election date

Perhaps he entered the date wrong on his Blackberry.

[sabra]

2. more: Afghan suicide attack kills nine, wounds 27

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL86638.htm

Afghan suicide attack kills nine, wounds 27

KABUL, Sept 28 (Reuters) - At least nine people were killed and 27 wounded in a suicide attack on Wednesday on buses carrying Afghan troops leaving a military training camp on the outskirts of the capital Kabul, officials said.

"Eight of those killed were national army officers and soldiers; it was a suicide attack but we don't know exactly how it happened," a Defence Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The other person killed was an Afghan civilian, he said.

Mohammad Akbar, the police chief of the eastern city district where the blast occurred said it happened in the car park of the army training base. He said he had reports of four dead and that it was a suicide attack.

[High Plains]

4. I'm in Kabul now...

Didn't hear the blast, but the sirens are blazing now.

Actually, the city has been relatively quiet recently. Somebody shot off a few rockets on the edge of town a couple of days ago, but they just landed in an empty field.

It hasn't been so quiet in the rest of the country, though. I've been here four days, and seven American soldiers have been killed.

The Taliban is widely supposed to be a spent force, but they still have guns and rockets. I think about 1,200 people have been killed in fighting this year, and more US troops have been killed this year than in any previous year.

[sabra]

6. are you in the Army?

stay safe.

peace.

[High Plains]

7. Not in the Army...

I write about drug policy. I've been covering a symposium here on the opium situation. A European think tank, the Senlis Council, just issued a feasibility study on licensing the crop and diverting it from the black market into legitimate medicinal channels, making opioid pain meds available at reasonable prices for poor countries.

Sounds very reasonable, so I expect it will never happen.

In the meantime, Aghanistan is responsible for about 90% of the (illicit) global opium supply. The opium trade accounts for either 35-40% or 60% of Afghan GDP, depending on who you talk to.

I want to get out and talk to some farmers and merchants, but the whole south and east of the country are Taliban country--too scary for li'l ole me. Might head north to Badakshan near the Tajik border; there, it's only the traffickers I would have to worry about.

[sabra]

5. more: Taliban say they carried out Afghan suicide attack

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/index.htm

Taliban say they carried out Afghan suicide attack

KABUL, Sept 28 (Reuters) - The Taliban carried out a deadly suicide attack on Afghan troops in the capital Kabul on Wednesday, a spokesman for the guerrillas said.

[cantstandbush]

8. Now we know why Bush was on TV talking about the war on terra this a.m.

Evrytime things begin to go wrong for us and more or our soldiers are killed in either Iraq or Afghanistan, Bush and company pull out the "address to nation" script to tell us what a great job we are doing and why the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are necessary wars.