KABUL: Survivors of a horrific suicide attack which killed 57 people at a volleyball game in Afghanistan told yesterday how a bomb packed with ball bearings ripped through spectators enjoying the final moments of the match.
In the country’s deadliest single attack since 2011, the bomber detonated his explosives as hundreds of young men and boys attended a tournament on Sunday featuring three local teams in the volatile eastern province of Paktika.
Separately, two NATO soldiers were killed in an attack in the east yesterday morning, the coalition said.
Paktika provincial spokesman Mukhlis Afghan said the death toll from Sunday’s blast rose to 57 after 15 people died of their injuries overnight.
“The game was about to end when we heard a big bang,” Salaam Khan, 19, told AFP at a military hospital in Kabul where he was flown for treatment to his injured chest and right leg.
“I was shouting for help. Just beside me was a dead army officer,” he said. “There were local police and commanders watching the game. I saw some killed and wounded.”
The attack underlines the challenges facing President Ashraf Ghani, who came to power in September, as US-led NATO troops wind down operations and Afghan security forces take over full responsibility for fighting the Taliban and other insurgents. Afghanistan’s intelligence agency named the Haqqani network, a hardline militant group aligned with the Taliban, as being behind the blast.
The Haqqani network, which was designated a terrorist organisation by the US in 2012, has been blamed for large-scale attacks on government and NATO targets across Afghanistan. AFP
