Suicide Bomber Kills 80 In Afghanistan

Attack At Dog-Fighting Competition Could Be Deadliest Since Fall Of Taliban

(AP)  A suicide bombing at an outdoor dog fighting competition killed 80 people and wounded scores more Sunday, a governor said, in what appeared to be the deadliest terror attack in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

Officials said the attack apparently targeted a prominent militia commander who had stood up against the Taliban. He died in the attack.

Several hundred people - including Afghan militia leaders - had gathered to watch the event on the western edge of the southern city of Kandahar. Witnesses reported gunfire from bodyguards after the blast; it was not immediately clear if the bullets killed anyone.

Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said 80 people died in the attack. Abdullah Fahim, a Health Ministry spokesman, said 70 were wounded.

Khalid blamed the bombing on the "enemy of Afghanistan" - an apparent reference to the Taliban. A Taliban spokesman said he didn't immediately know if the militants were responsible. The Taliban often claim responsibility immediately after major attacks against police and army forces - often naming the bombers - but shy away from claiming attacks with high civilian casualties.

Kandahar - the Taliban's former stronghold and Afghanistan's second largest city - is one of the country's largest opium poppy producing areas. The province has been the scene of fierce battles between NATO forces, primarily from Canada and the United States, and Taliban fighters over the last two years.

Dog fighting competitions are a popular form of entertainment around Afghanistan. The fights can attract hundreds of spectators who cram into a tight circle around the spectacle. The sport was banned during the Taliban rule.

The blast crumpled several Afghan police trucks and left bloodstains around the barren dirt field. Afghan soldiers donated blood at Kandahar's main hospital after the attack, said Dr. Durani, who goes by only one name.

"There are too many patients here," he said. "Some of them are in very serious condition."

Wali Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai and the president of Kandahar's provincial council, said the target of the attack was Abdul Hakim Jan, the leader of a local militia whom Karzai said was killed in the attack.

Jan was the provincial police chief in Kandahar in the early 1990s and was the only commander in the province to stand up against the Taliban during its rule, said Khalid Pashtun, a parliamentarian who represents Kandahar.

"Hakim Jan is one of the important, prominent jihadi commanders in Kandahar," Pashtun said. "There were so many people gathered and of course the Taliban and al Qaeda usually target this kind of important people."

Jan was most recently appointed the commander of an auxiliary police force - often shorthand for a local militia operating with government approval - to protect the Arghandab, a strategic area north of Kandahar. The area was overrun briefly by the Taliban late last year after the local leader, Mullah Naqibullah, died of heart attack.

A joint Afghan, NATO and U.S. force pushed the militants out of Arghandab. Shortly after, NATO's top commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. Dan McNeill, visited Arghandab to reassure local leaders of the alliance's commitment to help President Hamid Karzai's government keep the area under their control.

Suicide attacks have been on the rise in Afghanistan, but rarely have they killed so many people. Militants carried out more than 140 suicide attacks in 2007, a record number.

Faizullah Qari Gar, a resident of Kandahar who was at the dog fight, said militant commanders' bodyguards opened fire on the crowd after the bombing.

"In my mind there were no Taliban to attack after the blast but the bodyguards were shooting anyway," he said.

The previous deadliest bomb attack came in November in the northern city of Baghlan, when a suicide bombing and subsequent gunfire from bodyguards killed about 70 people including six parliamentarians and 58 students and teachers. Investigators never determined how many of the deaths were caused by the blast and how many by the gunfire.

[iceman_1960]

"A suicide bombing at an outdoor dog fighting competition killed 80 people and wounded scores more Sunday, a governor said, in what appeared to be the deadliest terror attack in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001."
-----------------------

How unfortunate that such a refined and civilized event had to be marred by a terrorist attack.

It isn"t always easy to blame the Israelis for their attitudes toward their Muslim neighbors.

[searingtruth]

"And so death begat death, and suffering begat suffering, until all had been consumed, and all cause lost."
SearingTruth


A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[sara48909]

A muslim friend explained something to me and I thought I would pass it on. In the Islamic faith the religion of a child is determined by his father. For example if the father is a muslim and the mother is a christian the child is a muslim. If the father is a christian and the mother is a muslim the child is a christian. Just the opposite of the Hebrew religion.

Obama''s father and step-father were both muslims. When Obama moved to Indonesia with his mother and step-father it was his step-father''s responsibility as a practicing muslim to take Obama to the mosque. So while Obama may have changed to christianity when he moved back to the US, while Obama was in Indonesia he was a practicing muslim. I can understand why he would want to conceal this. It would make it harder for him politically. However I would have more respect for him if he had simply come out and explained that he no choice since he was a child in a muslim household. And if you have actually listened to him, what he has said is that he married his wife in a christian church and that his daughters were baptised in a christian church.
Its just the same thing as with the plagarism thing. I keep losing a little more respect for him every day.

[alphaa10-2009]

jowand said, "That was the Clintoids Inc. who started the closet muslim rumors about Obama..."
---
Nice try, but didn''t fly.

The Clinton campaign reference to Obama''s background concerned drug use in his youth, which Obama already had related in an earlier book. There was no reference to religon from the Clinton staff.

But this was the moment when understandable tension appeared between Clinton and Obama camps, because the Clinton apologies basically took pains to repeat the reference.

[jowand]

Now, sensing its "Obama is a closet Muslim" charge is falling on its face, the GOP smear machine has turned to another baseless lie. Like the indignant little old reckneck ladies who campaigned in 2000 against McCain for his "illegitimate black daughter", the Bushbots fall for a new GOP lie, every time.

Posted by alphaa10 at 11:24 PM : Feb 17, 2008

That was the Clintoids Inc. who started the closet muslim rumors about Obama

[rowdytexan2]

Well, as for this article, I can''t say I''m a bit weepy eyed over a bunch neandrethal men standing around watching and cheering at a dog fight that got their arses bombed off!

I hope the poor dogs survived.

[alphaa10-2009]

Troll Alert--- Troll Alert
---
The GOP smear machine has sent Bushbots onto public forums to spread lies about Obama, Clinton and possibly McCain, as well. Remember Lee Atwater? This campaign manager for Reagan was chairman of the GOP/RNC and mentor to Karl Rove and Bush, Jr.. At his death, Atwater finally admitted what critics charged was true-- unabashed lies are the staple of GOP campaigns.

Atwater, who helped Bush, Sr. with his "Willie Horton" attack ad, confessed, "You start out in 1954 by saying, ''Nyger, nyger, nyger.'' ...''By 1968, you can''t say ''Nyger%u2019%u2014that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states'' rights, and all that stuff. You''re getting so abstract now [that] you''re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you''re talking about are totally economic things, and a by-product of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites."

Atwater racial tactics are used wherever there is bigotry to exploit-- Bush used race in 2000 in SC against McCain. And in October, 2006, the GOP ran an ad accusing black TN congressman, Harold Ford, Jr., of consorting with Playboy "playmates".

Now, sensing its "Obama is a closet Muslim" charge is falling on its face, the GOP smear machine has turned to another baseless lie. Like the indignant little old reckneck ladies who campaigned in 2000 against McCain for his "illegitimate black daughter", the Bushbots fall for a new GOP lie, every time.

[sara48909]

Someone just emailed this to me. I cannot vouch for the veracity. But just as the big newspapers and tv news didn''t publish anything about Larry Craig until long after he was charged, I''m wondering why the news isnt'' saying anything about this.******
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVeFVtcdSYY

[alphaa10-2009]

sara48909 said, "... you should get the point by now. Bush lied. Bush has lied about everything..."
---
By now, most already understand Bush lied *at least* 935 times about Iraq-- not to mention lied about other emergencies of his criminally inept reign of error. After all, "No one thought the levees would break". And, "Reagan proved deficits don''t matter." (credited to Cheney, but enacted by Bush), and countless other gems. The national debt doubled in six years under Bush. The drastic Bush debt increase almost equals all the debt added by all previous presidents since the end of WW2. We are a debtor nation and economy... and now show it.

But the most egregious of all blunders is Bush''s failure to deal with Afghanistan as congress authorized him to do back in 2001. Instead, Bush transferred units already there to Iraq! (see also Thomas Ricks, "Fiasco") Afghanistan is losing to the Taliban (again), Karzai cannot find supporters without fear for their lives, internal reconstruction is dead because workers are killed, and even airlifting The Thirty Thousand from Baghdad to Kabul is too desperate and ill-considered to succeed. And what would "Fort Apache" Baghdad do for its martial order, then?

As if to taunt Bush, bin Laden appears to run free, and even the payoff Cheney authorized to Sunni groups is endangered-- last month saw some 100 of the Awakening assassinated by suspect al Qaeda in Iraq units. And US troops continue, killed and wounded in a longer engagement than WW2.

sara48909 wrote:

"I could go on and on and on, but you should get the point by now. Bush lied. Bush has lied about everything from the second he started campaigning for office."

It started while he was still in his mommy''s womb.

[sara48909]

In fact, the Bush Admin is ticked because the CIA released the NIE to the public last fall about Iran discontinuing its nuclear program because they were afraid Bush was going to do the same thing with Iran that he did with Iraq and use the CIA as the scapegoat again.

[sara48909]

Bush is definitely not perfect ......
_________________
Someone else who bought into the Bush myth.
1) Clinton was the first pres to enact an Office on Counter-Terrorism with Richard A Clarke as a cabinet position
2) Clinton and his admin tried to impress upon Bush that he needed to focus on BinLaden. Bush held over Richard A Clarke but he demoted the Counter-Terr dept to a non-cabinet position.
3) Read Against All Enemies by Richard A Clarke along with the 9/11 Commission Report. From before Bush took office Clarke and others tried to warn him about Bin Laden & Al Qeida. On August 6, 2001 the CIA warned Bush that Al-Qeida was going to use airplanes to attack the US. That was why all his Cabinet members were told NOT to use the airlines.
4) From the day Bush took his oath he was looking for a way to invade Iraq. Bush manipulated the data from the CIA to invade Iraq even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.
6) Bush''s allegation that Clinton let the military go to heII was another lie. Clinton was the one who sought and approved funding for the Predator project. The military that moved into Afghanistan and Iraq was the military that Clinton built. If you go back and look at military funding requests and military buildups you will see that Bush did not introduce ANY changes to the military until 2003.
I could go on and on and on, but you should get the point by now. Bush lied. Bush has lied about everything from the second he started campaigning for office.

[sara48909]

Read the 9/11 report. All of it every page. It would be a tremendous eye-opener for every one of you.

[joyous88]

Yes thats right, take a good look at your hero -Reagan

[joyous88]

everything is the fault of the bush crime family, did you forget there was a Bush in already,

did you forget that the conservatives have owned the congress and senate for the last 12 years, and that the democrats might have a majority right now
but they do not have enough votes to get anything done.

conservatives are UN-American

read the bill of rights for the proof

[jwind11]

not bush fault...from the dates in your post was happening before he was president

Posted by jwind11 at 07:10 PM : Feb 17, 2008
-------

Well, we had a budget surplus and the deficit was on its way down....

Posted by FloydZepp

so is it bush fault or not?

[jwind11]

yep she could, but she wont....wouldnt make it fact

Posted by jwind11 at 07:09 PM : Feb 17, 2008
-------

Why, yes it would, my friend.

Posted by FloydZepp

she needs to do it then to back it up

[jwind11]

explain how this is bush` fault my friend

Posted by jwind11 at 07:05 PM : Feb 17, 2008
-------

I don''''t need to explain anything to you my friend. If you wish to blame Bush, then by all means, go ahead.

Posted by FloydZepp

not bush fault...from the dates in your post was happening before he was president

[jwind11]

you have actual facts to back all this up?

Posted by jwind11 at 07:07 PM : Feb 17, 2008
----

I suppose she could point to the congressional votes blocking the actions and count the RINOs who voted....

Posted by FloydZepp

yep she could, but she wont....wouldnt make it fact

[jwind11]

None of you have anything to brag about as Republicans. The Republican Party is the reason why our country is in the mess it is in right now. When the 9/11 Report came out the only reason why Bush wasn''''t impeached was because the Republican Party was there to save his a$$. You should be ashamed to call yourself Republicans.

Posted by sara48909

you have actual facts to back all this up?