Kabul, January 20
A suicide bomber blew himself up in northern Afghanistan today wounding two persons, but the apparent target of the attack, ethnic Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, escaped unhurt, his aides said.
A Dostum aide who was at the scene of the attack said the bomber struck as worshippers walked from a park in Dostum’s hometown and headquarters in Shiberghan after prayers for the Eid al-Adha Muslim festival.
“The bomb went off some distance away from where Dostum was. It was strapped to the bomber’s chest. It could have gone off early, or maybe there was a fault,” said the aide, Ehsanullah.
“Dostum was just heading towards his car when it went off and he was unhurt,” he told Reuters.
Another aide to Dostum, a veteran fighter who came fourth in October’s presidential elections, blamed the attack on Al-Qaida and the former Taliban government.
The attack coincided with a rare statement by Taliban leader Mullah Omar in which he said the US forces were prolonging their occupation of Afghanistan and were trying to divide the radical Islamist group with rumours of a amnesty for its foot-soldiers.
US-backed forces overthrew the Taliban government in late 2001 for refusing to hand over Al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden, the architect of the September 11 attacks on US cities.
US-backed Afghan President Hamid Karzai has offered an amnesty for all but about 100 top Taliban leaders, but the Taliban deny any peace talks are underway.
Taliban forces said they had attacked an oil tanker carrying fuel for US-led forces near the border town of Spin Boldak overnight killing its Pakistani driver and wounding another man. The local police official Nader Khan confirmed the attack. —
Reuters
