Schools blast kills 25 in Afghanistan
Updated on 09 July 2009
An explosion outside two schools in Afghanistan has killed at least 25 people, including 15 students.
Officials said the blast in Logar province was caused by explosives hidden beneath a pile of firewood in the back of a truck which had crashed overnight.
Local police chief Ghulam Mustafa said the truck rolled into a stream between two schools. The blast went off as police checked the abandoned truck, leading to speculation the explosives could have been meant for an attack elsewhere.
"The four police who were checking the truck were killed, so were the students and some shopkeepers and other civilians," Mr Mustafa said.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the blast as a "savage and anti-Islamic attack".
It was the worst toll from a single blast since an attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on July 7, 2008, which killed 58 people.
Elsewhere, Taliban fighters have overrun the district of eastern Nuristan near the Pakistan border after heavy fighting.
Officials in the area had pleaded for reinforcements after Taliban fighters surrounded key buildings on Tuesday, when eight police were killed and eight abducted during gunbattles.
"We have not received any reinforcements so far and the district fell into Taliban hands," provincial police chief Mohammad Qasim said.
Nuristan senator Noor Rahman said it appeared some police had left their posts overnight. One police commander and other officers had joined Taliban fighters to help them take over the district, he said.
US Marines launched the Helmand offensive - Operation Strike of the Sword - last week with the help of British troops.
That assault is the first major operation under US President Barack Obama's new regional strategy to defeat the Taliban and stabilise Afghanistan, which holds a presidential election on August 20.
Afghanistan's east and south have long been Taliban strongholds, although a growing insurgency has spread out of these areas in recent months to the relatively safer north and even to the outskirts of Kabul.
While there have been no major engagements in Helmand in the past week, Afghan civilians and troops and foreign soldiers have been killed in a variety of attacks across the country.
About 20 foreign soldiers, most from the US and Britain, have been killed in the past six days, making it one of the bloodiest weeks for foreign troops for many months.
Earlier, the Nato-led coalition said another two soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in the south.
One of the main goals of the new operation is to capture ground from the Taliban and then hold it, something overstretched British-led Nato troops have so far been unable to achieve. It is also seeking to win over Afghans from the insurgency.
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