From The New York Times;
Bombers Strike Twice in Southern Afghanistan
By TAIMOOR SHAH and GRAHAM BOWLEY
Published: March 14, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan — Two deadly explosions struck in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, claiming at least nine lives in the second day of violence since an American soldier went on a rampage and killed 16 civilians.
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In the city of Kandahar, a motorcycle packed with explosives detonated near an Afghan intelligence directorate office, killing one security official and wounding two other officials and a civilian, the Kandahar governor’s office said. In a separate attack in Helmand Province, a roadside bomb struck a minivan at about 1 a.m., destroying the vehicle and killing eight people, Dawoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand, said. The people in the minivan were returning home from a picnic and included three members of one family, officials said.
“The land mine was so powerful it mingled the body parts of the victims with the car parts, making it difficult to recognize the bodies,” Mr. Ahmadi said.
Last week six British soldiers were killed in Helmand when their armored vehicle struck an explosive device, the deadliest attack suffered by the British in six years.
The motorcycle bomb in Kandahar exploded near a Turkish school that is next to the national intelligence directorate offices. “We had information that a motorcycle was going to target somewhere,” said Zalmai Ayoubi, a spokesman for the governor.
The explosion took place a few hundred yards from the governor’s guest house where a high-level delegation was staying. The delegation is visiting the area, investigating the shootings on Sunday by the American soldier. The dead were mainly women and children. The soldier is being held by American authorities in Afghanistan.
The delegation held a meeting in the guest house earlier in the day with tribal elders from Panjwai, the district where Sunday’s shooting took place. The delegation came under a fire at a memorial for the dead on Tuesday. The attack in Kandahar on Wednesday also appeared to aim at the delegation.
The rampage came amid deepening public outrage spurred by the burning of Korans by American personnel last month and an earlier video showing American Marines urinating on dead militants.
On Tuesday, President Obama pledged that a thorough investigation would be conducted into Sunday’s rampage. Mr. Obama said that the Pentagon would follow the facts “wherever they lead us,” though he offered no new details about the identity of the soldier or the circumstances of the attack.
Mr. Obama insisted that the furor stirred up by the shootings would not alter the policy or timetable of the United States as it winds down the war in Afghanistan.
Wednesday’s attacks came hours after Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta arrived on an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, the first by a senior member of the Obama administration since the shootings.
The attacks in Kandahar also came a day after militants attacked a village in Kandahar Province, killing at least one Afghan soldier. The Tuesday assault, in the Panjwai district, was against a high-level Afghan government delegation at a mosque where a memorial service for Sunday’s victims was being held.
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