Afghan Intelligence Chief Abdullah Laghmani Killed In Suicide Attack
Sep 2, 2009 1 Comment ›› Erik Wong
Philippe Naughton, and James Hider in Kabul
The deputy head of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency was killed today in a suicide bomb attack highlighting the continuing inability of the country’s security apparatus to contain the Taleban insurgency.
Officials said that Abdullah Laghmani was among at least 22 people, including a number of senior officials, killed in the attack at a mosque in eastern Afghanistan.
Mr Laghmani, the number two in the National Directorate of Security, was meeting mullahs at a mosque in Mehtar Lim, the capital of the relatively peaceful Laghman province, when a suicide bomber drove up in a car packed with explosives.
Those killed included the director of the provincial council and the provincial chief executive. The intelligence chief’s death was confirmed by the provincial governor, Lutfullah Mashal, who said that 18 civilians had been killed, three of them women. He added: “Abdullah Laghmani is among the dead.”
An official at the Afghan Health Ministry initially confirmed that at least 10 bodies had been brought into hospitals with 36 people wounded, but warned that the death toll was likely to rise with bodies taken elsewhere. “There are women and children among the wounded as well,” said Doctor Ahmad Farid Raaid.
The Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack.
A provincial government spokesman said that the bomber blew himself up as people were leaving the mosque following a meeting about boosting community participation in counter-narcotics and security efforts.
The United Nations released a report today claiming that opium production in Afghanistan has fallen for a second year with poppy cultivation down 22 per cent despite concerns about drug stockpiles. Afghanistan produces around 90 per cent of the world’s opium, processed into heroin and sold on the streets of Europe and central Asia. Its profits have helped bankroll the Taleban’s eight-year insurgency.
On August 25, a massive truck bomb exploded in Kandahar, the main city in southern Afghanistan, killing more than 40 people in the biggest militant attack in the country for more than a year.
The attack highlighted the massive problems facing Afghanistan as senior representatives of the United States and Europe gathered in Paris to discuss their response to the elections and allegations of mass fraud.
Western powers hope to use the one-day meeting to chart a post-election course in Afghanistan taking account of a strategic shift in the war with the Taleban.
The US envoy Richard Holbrooke was to join counterparts from Britain, France, Germany and the United Nations as partial results from the elections show President Hamid Karzai with a narrow lead.
The fifth tranche of results, due later today, is expected to show Mr Karzai holding the lead over his main rival, the former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, who has accused his opponent of stuffing ballot boxes but said he will not accept a compromised result.
