Afghan bomb attacks kill at least 12 civilians

In the first incident, a suicide bomber driving a rickshaw detonated his explosives near a crowd holding a picnic for the Afghan New Year in Gereshk district of Helmand province, the provincial governor’s spokesman said.

“The target was an Afghan Army vehicle. The first reports are that 10 civilians have been killed and seven more wounded,” said Daoud Ahmadi, adding the bomb missed its target.

A witness at the scene told Reuters by telephone that he had been no more than 50 metres away from the blast. “The bomber was driving a rickshaw and was targeting an army vehicle. When the soldiers saw the rickshaw, they sped up. The bomb exploded in a crowded area where many people were picnicking,” said Khan Mohammad. “Many people have been killed and wounded,” he added.

A spokesman for NATO-led forces in Kabul said none of its forces were killed or wounded in the attack, but that foreign troops were now in the area assessing the situation.

Separately, in Khost province in the southeast of the country, a roadside bomb killed two Afghan civilians and wounded four, a senior police chief said.

“A civilian car hit a roadside bomb on the outskirts of Khost city. Two civilians were killed and four wounded,” acting provincial police chief Mohammad Yaqoub Mandozai told Reuters.

Reconciliation: Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s hard-line vice president has expressed hope that an upcoming national conference will lay the foundation for peace with insurgents.

During celebrations in Mazar-i-Sharif marking the Afghan New Year, Vice President Mohammad Qasim Fahim, who fought the Soviets and commanded forces that overthrew the Taliban in 2001, said a “peace jirga” planned for late April or early May would try to chart a way to reconcile with government opponents.

A spokesman for a Taliban-allied group led by former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar told the Associated Press on Sunday that his party had sent a three-member delegation to Kabul to talk peace with the government. But the spokesman, Waliullah, did not say when the delegation from Hizb-i-Islam, or Party of Islam, had arrived in the Afghan capital. Spokesmen for the government could not be reached due to the New Year holiday. agencies