Two Bombs Kill 64 in Afghanistan

KABUL — Two bombs targeted a group of lawmakers in northern Afghanistan today, killing at least 64 people, including five members of parliament, in the deadliest attack in the country since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, officials said.The bombs exploded outside a sugar factory in the northern province of Baghlan as the lawmakers were about to enter. The twin blasts struck children, elders, and government officials who had gathered to greet the visiting delegation of 18 lawmakers from the lower house, officials said.At least 64 people were killed, said a government minister who asked not to be identified because he was releasing information not yet made official. At least five members of parliament were among those killed, he said.A lawmaker, Shukria Barakzai, said 18 of the 249 lower house parliamentarians had traveled to Baghlan province, and that 13 were dead or “in danger.”Baghlan lies about 95 miles north of Kabul.If the death toll is confirmed, the attack would be the deadliest in Afghanistan since the 2001 American-led invasion. Taliban bombers have killed regional governors in the past, but never have militants killed so many high-ranking officials in one attack.In June, a bomb tore through a bus carrying police instructors in Kabul, killing 35 people.A police official, Kamin Khan, said people “everywhere” were dead and wounded, including police, children, lawmakers, and officials from the Department of Agriculture.Among the lawmakers killed was a former Afghan commerce minister and a powerful member of the Northern Alliance, Sayed Mustafa Kazimi, the lawmaker’s secretary, Ahmadi, said. Kazimi also served as the spokesman of the largest opposition group in Afghanistan, the National Front.The northern Afghan region where the blast happened is known for tensions between the mainly ethnic Tajik government leadership and remnants of the militant group Hezb-i-Islami, whose fugitive leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an ethnic Pashtun, is allied to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda but has denied organizational links.

Two Bombs Kill 64 in Afghanistan

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