Afghanistan: Bombs targeting lawmakers kill at least 28

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A bomb attack targeted a group of lawmakers in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least 28 people, including five parliamentarians, officials said. Death tolls varied widely in the confusion of the attack, which also wounded dozens of school children. The bomb blast went off outside a sugar factory in the northern province of Baghlan as the lawmakers were about to go inside. The blast struck school children, Afghan elders and government officials who had gathered to greet the visiting delegation of 18 lawmakers from the lower house, officials said. The Ministry of Interior said at least 28 people were killed in the blast, but a doctor at Baghlan's main hospital, Dr. Muhammad Yousuf Fayez, said dozens of dead bodies may also have been left at the blast site and collected by families, meaning they wouldn't have been counted officially. Earlier, a high-ranking government official said 64 people had died. At least 42 school children were among 81 people wounded, Fayez said.