Bodyguards fired wildly into a crowd after a suicide bombing in northern Afghanistan, killing mostly schoolchildren in the barrage, an internal UN report said.
The report also suggests some people within the UN want legal action taken against the gunmen, who were guarding a group of about a dozen lawmakers from the parliament's economic committee being greeted by hundreds of children on a visit to a sugar factory in Afghanistan's normally peaceful north.
The UN mission in Afghanistan, however, concedes that the report is one of several conflicting views inside the world body and has not been officially endorsed.
PHOTO: AP
The UN Department of Safety and Security report obtained by the press said it was not clear how many died in the suicide bombing and how many died from subsequent gunfire after the Nov. 6 attack in Baghlan Province.
Sixty-one schoolchildren and six lawmakers were among those who were killed.
As many as two-thirds of the 77 people killed and more than 100 wounded were hit by gunfire, the report says, describing the gunmen's actions as "crimes."
"Regardless of what the exact breakdown of numbers may be, the fact remains that a number of armed men deliberately and indiscriminately fired into a crowd of unarmed civilians that posed no threat to them, causing multiple deaths and injuries," the report said.
Though the UN report described the firing as deliberate, some witnesses said that there was a blanket of smoke at the blast site so thick that they couldn't see who was shooting.
Other witnesses could see clearly enough to identify the gunmen as the lawmakers' bodyguards.
Adrian Edwards, the UN's spokesman in Afghanistan, confirmed the internal report's validity, but said it was one of several conflicting views inside world body and that its findings had not been endorsed.
According to Afghan authorities, most of the casualties were the result of the suicide attack.
Aghan Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary has said most of the victims were hit by ball bearings from the bomb, and not bullets.
"It has been confirmed that eight of the teachers in charge of this group of schoolchildren suffered multiple gunshot wounds, five of which died," the report said.
The report said that investigations into the incident "are being hampered by restrictions on witnesses and officials" and that despite several arrests, there have not yet been any reports of who is responsible.
One of the doctors who helped treat patients after the bombing -- for which no one has claimed responsibility -- said he was pressured by a government official to hide the truth about how many gunshot victims he attended to.
The doctor refused to identify the official and spoke only on condition he wasn't identified because of fear of reprisals.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including