Suicide bomber targets Afghan volleyball tournament

Around 20 children were taken for treatment at a hospital in Paktika. Picture: AP

The bloodshed came just hours after parliament approved agreements allowing US and Nato troops to remain in the country past the end of the year.

Dozens more were wounded, many critically, said Mokhlis Afghan, spokesman for the governor of Paktika province. He said the bomber was mingling with the large crowd at the sporting event in Yahyakhail district when he set off the explosives.

“There were too many people gathered in the one place to watch the game,” Mr Afghan said. Naseeb Ahmad, a doctor at Sharan Hospital in Paktika’s capital, said the hospital received about 80 wounded people, 20 of them children.

Volleyball is a popular sport in Afghanistan, played across the country, and the attacker is likely to have targeted the event to ensure maximum casualties. It is also possible that the presence of local police in the crowd made it an attractive target, as security forces are regularly attacked by insurgents. No one has claimed responsibility.

Paktika, bordering Pakistan, is one of Afghanistan’s most volatile regions, a place where Taleban and affiliated insurgent groups like the Haqqani network are waging an intensifying war against the government in Kabul. Yesterday’s attack was characteristic of Haqqani operations, as the group regularly sends young men to carry out suicide attacks on high-profile targets.

Attacks that kill women and children cause particular outrage, and the Taleban has been known to avoid claiming responsibility or to blame deaths on security forces.

Earlier this year, a suicide bomber blew up a car packed with explosives near a busy market and a mosque in Paktika’s Urgun district. The death toll was put at 43. That attack was, until yesterday, Afghanistan’s worst for 2014.

Attacks across the country have escalated this year amid a contentious election and president Ashraf Ghani’s inauguration in September. The insurgents use their attacks to make clear their opposition to Mr Ghani’s administration, as well as his support for a security agreement with the US, which he signed immediately after taking office.

Afghanistan’s parliament approved the agreement yesterday with the US and another with Nato allowing 12,000 international troops to remain in the country past the end of this year.

US President Barack Obama has approved an expanded combat mission authorising American troops to engage Taleban fighters, not just al-Qaeda terrorists. Mr Obama’s decision also means the US can provide air support when needed.

The decision to expand the military’s authority does not affect the overall number of US troops who will remain in Afghanistan. Earlier this year, Mr Obama ordered the US force be reduced to 9,800 by the end of this year.

The troops were supposed to remain in a training and support capacity after ceding the leading role in the anti-insurgent war to Afghan security forces in the middle of last year. But the Afghans have suffered record casualties, stirring concerns that international troops are essential if the war is to be won.

Afghanistan’s first deputy president, Abdul Rashid Dostum, welcomed Mr Obama’s decision, saying: “The United States knows that the Afghan army needs more equipment, that the army are being killed in Taleban attacks.”