Afghan girl ‘forced to wear suicide bomb vest’

Afghan soldiers spotted the girl, known as Spozhmay, wearing a suicide jacket in southern Helmand province.

But there are conflicting reports about whether she was arrested before being able to operate the bomb or whether she handed herself in.

“My brother Zahir and his friend Jabar forced me to wear the suicide vest,” she told police.

“They also gave me extra clothes to wear after crossing the water. They brought me near the river to cross at night, but when I saw the water and coldness I shouted and said that it is cold and I can’t cross the water.

“They moved me back home and take off the vest from my body. My father beat me, I had to run away from home in the middle of the night and spent the rest of night in a village nearby to our home called Balochan village. And early morning I surrendered myself to the police force in that area.”

Living with the Taliban

Spozhmay also told police that she had been living with the Taliban.

She added: “My brother killed an army soldier in Marja district. They have captured the army soldier in Lashkar Gah and killed him. I saw the killing and I was crying, I asked my brother not to do this but they didn’t listen to me. My brother kept me at home for most of the time and did not allow me to go out.”

Militants in Iraq often used child bombers, some of them disabled, to bypass security checks. But the use of children and women bombers in Afghanistan has been relatively rare in the years since US-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government.

Colonel Hamidullah Sediqi, commander of the Afghan border police force, said: “As you can see, this innocent girl, she shouldn’t be doing this. No-one and no religion allows her to do this”.