Bomber Kills 16 in W. Afghanistan      11/20 07:56

   A suicide bomber killed 16 people and wounded at least 23 others Friday in a 
busy city square in western Afghanistan, while near Kabul a powerful former 
warlord narrowly escaped an assassination attempt, officials said.

   KABUL (AP) -- A suicide bomber killed 16 people and wounded at least 23 
others Friday in a busy city square in western Afghanistan, while near Kabul a 
powerful former warlord narrowly escaped an assassination attempt, officials 
said.

   The attacks came a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai took the oath of 
office for a second term amid escalating violence across the country. Karzai 
said he has put national reconciliation with Taliban insurgents at the top of 
his agenda.

   Lawmaker Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a former Northern Alliance leader who has been 
accused by Human Rights Watch of war crimes, was in a convoy with his 
bodyguards when a remote-controlled bomb hidden in an irrigation canal beside 
the road exploded in the Paghman district north of the Afghan capital, said 
district chief of police Abdul Razaq.

   One car in the convoy was destroyed, and Razaq said five of Sayyaf's 
bodyguards had been killed. Sayyaf himself was not injured.

   In the suicide bombing earlier Friday in western Afghanistan, a bomber on a 
motorcycle blew himself up about 55 yards (50 meters) from the Farah provincial 
governor's compound in a crowded square, said Gov. Rohul Amin. The dead 
included two children and a police officer, he said.

   Afghan police shouted "Stop! Stop!" at the motorcyclist before he detonated 
the explosives, provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Faqir Askar said. It was 
unclear what the bomber was targeting.

   Dr. Shir Agh Asas at the hospital in Farah city said several children also 
were among the wounded.

   "These days Taliban are causing high casualties because the foreign forces 
and Afghan forces have been conducting operations against the insurgency in the 
region," Askar said.

   An operation three days ago in another part of the province killed five 
insurgents, including a Taliban commander and a bomb-maker, Askar said.

   There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either of Friday's 
attacks.

   Sayyaf was a key U.S.-backed mujahedeen leader during the 1980s invasion of 
Afghanistan by the Soviet Union. His group was known for its close links to 
Arab fighters, including Osama bin Laden. He controlled the interior ministry 
when the mujahedeen ruled Afghanistan between 1992 and 1996, when their bitter 
internecine fighting led to the Taliban takeover in 1996.

   Sayyaf was close to slain Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Masood and 
opposed to the Taliban. When the Northern Alliance, backed by U.S. forces, 
toppled the Taliban regime after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks for hosting 
al-Qaida in Afghanistan, Sayyaf became a powerful figure in Kabul once more.

   He has since been elected to Parliament and has close ties to Karzai, 
campaigning for him during the August presidential elections.

   On Thursday, Karzai invited insurgents to lay down arms.

   "We invite dissatisfied compatriots, who are not directly linked to 
international terrorism, to return to their homeland," he said.

   Karzai also set a five-year timetable for the Afghan security forces to take 
the lead in defending the nation, a goal that would allow international forces 
to take on more of a support role.

   As the inaugural ceremony took place in Kabul on Thursday, a suicide bomber 
killed two U.S. service members in the southern province of Zabul, local 
officials and NATO said. Hours later, another suicide bomber blew himself up in 
a busy marketplace in another province, killing 10 civilians, including three 
boys, and wounding 13 other people.

   Also Friday, three civilians were wounded by a roadside bomb in Khost 
province, according to Wazir Pacha, deputy police chief of Khost.

   Separately, NATO said Afghan and international forces killed a man in Takhar 
province in northern Afghanistan on Friday believed to be an operative with the 
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan who was responsible for financing militant 
activities and transporting foreign fighters into the region. The man was 
killed during a search of a compound in rural Bangi district, it said.

   According to NATO, there has been an increase in the number of Uzbek 
fighters in the ranks of the Taliban in northern Afghanistan from the Islamic 
Movement of Uzbekistan.


(KM)