Breaking News, World News and Taiwan News.

Updated Sunday, June 26, 2011 11:52 pm TWN, By Sabawoon Amarkhail ,AFP

Sponsors
▪	Buy china wholesale products from reliable chinese wholesalers on DHgate.com!
▪	Save 75% for all hotels in Shanghai, Beijing and whole China. Lowest rates for Flights in China.
▪	Get the best deals for Guangzhou Hotels or choose from more than 10,000 hotels in 499 Chinese cities.
▪	Find great real time deals on China Flights. Book flights to China or China domestic flights 24/7.

At least 20 dead in Afghan hospital bomb attack

PULI ALAM, Afghanistan -- A bomb at an Afghan hospital Saturday killed at least 20 people including women and children, days after U.S. President Barack Obama said 10,000 American forces would leave the country this year.

The brazen suicide car bombing in Logar province, about 75 kilometers (45 miles) south of the capital Kabul, also wounded over 20 people and officials warned the death toll could rise.

It was condemned “in the strongest terms” by the United Nations, which said the hospital's maternity ward was badly damaged in the attack and many of the victims were women and children.

Underlining the confusion and chaos at the site, the ministry of public health initially put the death toll at 60 but later corrected its own figures.

An eyewitness described horrific scenes of victims on fire and body parts scattered in all directions following the blast in the remote district of Azra, close to the border with Pakistan.

“At least 20 of our countrymen have been martyred and around 25 are wounded,” the ministry said, strongly condemning the attack.

The Afghan interior minister also said that 20 people were killed including hospital staff and patients, while 23 civilians were wounded.

But provincial health director Mohammad Zaref Nayebkhail told AFP the death toll could still be significantly higher as many people came to the scene quickly after the blast and removed the bodies of their relatives.

Din Mohammad Darwaish, the Logar provincial spokesman, said the attack was a suicide car bombing.

One man who lives near the devastated hospital, Abdul Rahman, told AFP that he lost seven relatives in the explosion.

“Seven members of my family including three women and two children went to that hospital this morning,” he said, through tears.

“I was at home, then I heard a big explosion. When I rushed to the site, I saw many dead and injured people.

“Many of them were burning, on fire. There were body parts everywhere. My family is dead, I can't find them, they are under the rubble.”

The Taliban denied it was behind the attack, with spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid saying: “We condemn this attack on a hospital... Whoever has done this wants to defame the Taliban.”

1|2|Next Page>>