Death toll from Afghanistan car bombing reaches 89, doubles initial reports
The initial reports from media sources stated that a car bombing in Afghanistan killed 38, but now is being revised to reflect almost 90 deaths.
Paktika is along the eastern border with Pakistan
Image/CIA
A suicide bomber drove the 4×4 vehicle into a crowded marketplace in the Urgen District of the Paktika province on Tuesday. CNN noted some discrepancy in the death toll date “Afghan Deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Ayoub Salang said 42 people were killed and more than 30 others were wounded” while the “United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan had different figures, stating that at least 43 civilians, including eight children, were killed, and 67 were wounded.”
Both the NY Times and Fox News followed with new figures late Tuesday night and Wednesday morning quoting the Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi : “…at least 89 people were known to have been killed.”
“So far 42 people wounded in the explosion have been moved to hospitals there, Azimi said…The explosion destroyed more than 20 shops and dozens of vehicles,” the Fox News reported added.
The market was full of people doing their shopping for the Muslim festival Ramadan at the time of the attack.
“There was blood everywhere, and we could see hundreds of people shouting and crying, including women and children,” said Sharafuddin in the NY Times coverage. He owns a shop that sells kitchenware. “I saw a woman dead while her two kids were crying sitting next to her, and they were covered in blood,” he said in a telephone interview. “The entire area seems like a graveyard with fresh blood on it.”
Mohammad Reza Kharoti, an administration chief, said all the casualties were civilians. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
“It was a very brutal suicide attack against poor civilians,” he said. “There was no military base nearby.”
“We clearly announce that it was not done by the Mujahedeen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
Eyewitnesses and medical staff said local hospitals were overrun with casualties after one of the deadliest attacks in months in Afghanistan.
The eastern province of Paktika shares a border with Pakistan’s restive and volatile tribal areas.
