A SUICIDE bomber has blown himself up in a crowd of children in southern Afghanistan, causing multiple casualties, as NATO troops handed them gift items, officials said. "A suicide attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body in a crowd of children where the troops were distributing pens and notebooks to kids," a district police official said on condition of anonymity.| Rat bastards. |
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed a bomb had exploded near a patrol in the city of Kandahar, causing "multiple casualties". "Local civilians also suffered injuries from the blast," it said in a statement. "The ISAF soldiers were evacuated to military medical facilities for treatment." It would not release the nationalities of the troops involved.
Police said the soldiers were Canadians, but this could not be immediately confirmed by the Canadian military which has 2300 soldiers in Kandahar.
"It was a suicide attack," interior ministry spokesman Zemaray Bashari said in Kabul, also identifying the patrol as Canadian. "It inflicted both civilian and military casualties."
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing and said that 10 Canadian soldiers had died. The fundamentalist group frequently gives exaggerated death tolls for its attacks. "Today a resident of Kandahar named Qudratullah detonated explosives strapped to his body targeting a Canadian foot patrol, which killed 10 Canadian solidiers," purported Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said.