An explosion targeting Afghanistan’s energy minister outside a girls school killed four civilians in the country’s far west, police said. A Taliban official claimed responsibility for the blast yesterday morning.
Taliban assassination attempts against officials have intensified this year, with more than 100 officials and pro-government tribal elders attacked — half of them fatally.
The convoy carrying Afghan Energy Minister Ismail Khan, a power broker in the western region of Herat, was headed to the airport when the bomb exploded outside the high school, said Raouf Ahmadi, a police spokesman. Ahmadi said four civilians died and 17 people were wounded, including four of Khan’s bodyguards.
PHOTO: EPA
He said Khan escaped unharmed and arrived safely at the airport.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for what he said was a car bomb targeting Khan, who was once governor of Herat, a western province bordering Iran. He said Khan was among the dead, though Mujahid’s claims often turn out to be false.
The Taliban assassination campaign is a strong sign of deteriorating security in the country, where a record number of US and NATO troops have also died this year. The Obama administration is now debating whether to send more US troops to Afghanistan as its government faces allegations of widespread fraud from the disputed Aug. 20 presidential election.
Afghanistan’s election organizers on Saturday released preliminary results for 30 of the country’s 34 provinces, more than a month after nationwide voting.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said turnout was 37.8 percent, slightly higher than the 37.7 percent who took part in the presidential poll.
A total of 3,339 candidates contested 420 seats. Results announced Saturday show that 251 men and 106 women were elected.
A quarter of the provincial council seats were reserved for women.
At least four candidates were killed during the campaign.
“These results are preliminary and may change based on ECC [Electoral Complaints Commission] decisions,” an IEC statement said.
“The IEC will announce the final results as soon as they have received and implemented the final decisions of the ECC,” it said.
The statement added that results from the remaining four provinces would be announced “soon.”
The polls have been mired in controversy, with complaints of irregularities.
The ECC is investigating thousands of fraud claims in the presidential election, only the second in Afghanistan’s turbulent history.
Preliminary results from the presidential poll show incumbent Hamid Karzai leading with 54.6 percent of the vote, against 27.8 percent for his main rival, former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
‘KAMPAI’: It is said that people in Japan began brewing rice about 2,000 years ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol Traditional Japanese knowledge and skills used in the production of sake and shochu distilled spirits were approved on Wednesday for addition to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, a committee of the UN cultural body said It is believed people in the archipelago began brewing rice in a simple way about two millennia ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol. By about 1000 AD, the imperial palace had a department to supervise the manufacturing of sake and its use in rituals, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association said. The multi-staged brewing techniques still used today are