Bomber kills 3 UN workers in Afghanistan

In other violence, 7 children die after ordnance explodes, gunmen ambush and kill 7 policemen.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
UN afghan 88 (photo credit: )
UN afghan 88
(photo credit: )
A suicide bomber in a vehicle attacked a convoy carrying Afghan doctors working for the United Nations in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing two doctors and their driver and wounding 15 others, officials said. In other violence, seven children died after ordnance they were playing with exploded, and militants ambushed and killed seven police, officials said. The two doctors were under contract with the UN World Health Organization in combating polio in Afghanistan, said Adrian Edwards, the chief UN spokesman in the country. The driver also worked for the UN mission. All three were Afghan nationals, Edwards said. The attack happened in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province as the convoy was on its way to vaccinate people, said provincial police Chief Matiullah Khan. The blast also wounded 15 other people, including 10 civilians and five Afghan guards protecting the convoy, Khan said. The bomber also died in the blast. Khan says the doctors were traveling in clearly marked UN vehicles. Edwards said the UN was trying to "determine if this was an explicit attack on the U. N or if we were a target of opportunity." "This attack was on innocent civilians working only for the people of Afghanistan, and is beyond comprehension," Kai Eide, the top UN official in Afghanistan, said in a statement. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, but Taliban militants are known to operate in the area and regularly use suicide bombings in their campaign against Afghan and foreign troops in the country. Elsewhere, an explosion killed seven children and wounded 13 while they were playing with an old shell or other military ordnance, said Abdul Rahim Desewal, the district chief of Andar in Ghazni province. Taliban militants ambushed a police patrol in central Afghanistan, killing at least seven officers, while US-led coalition troops killed several militants in the east, officials said Sunday. Authorities recovered the bodies of seven officers after Saturday's ambush in the central Ghazni province, and another officer was missing, said Mohammad Sharif Kohistani, a provincial police official. Lightly armed police officers often bear the brunt of Taliban attacks in Afghanistan. Over 900 officers were killed by insurgents in 2007. Separately, several militants were killed and two were detained during a raid by US and Afghan forces in the eastern Khost province Saturday, the US-led coalition said in a statement. The troops were targeting militants associated with Siraj Haqqani, the son of longtime warlord Jalalludin Haqqani. The U.S. has called Siraj Haqqani a ruthless new brand of militant leader and last year announced a US$200,000 reward for his capture. Haqqani, a Taliban-associated militant with close ties to al-Qaida, is accused of masterminding beheadings and massive bombings. He is believed to be in Pakistan. More than 4,100 people, mostly militants, have died this year in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press.