9 Afghans killed in attack on Indian consulate

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Three suicide bombers tried to attack the Indian consulate in an eastern Afghan city on Saturday, sparking a shootout with guards on a bustling downtown street that left at least nine civilians dead, official said.

The attack, which ended when the militants detonated a car bomb that left charred debris scattered in central Jalalabad near the Pakistan border, did not appear to damage the consulate itself, and Indian officials said all of the facility's staff escaped unharmed.

The Taliban denied responsibility for the attack, and suspicion instead fell upon Pakistan-based terrorist groups that have been blamed for deadly violence against Indian interests in Afghanistan in the past.

The bombing comes at a time when Afghanistan and India are both trying to patch up relations with Pakistan. Islamabad considers Afghanistan its strategic backyard, and has always viewed India — with which it has fought several wars in the past 65 years — as a rival here.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has blamed Pakistani influence over the Taliban for much of the violence in his country, only last week announced plans to travel to Islamabad.

___________________

Saturday's attack began when two men wearing explosive vests got out of a car as it approached a checkpoint outside the consulate, prompting a police guard to immediately open fire on them, said Masum Khan Hashimi, the deputy police chief for Nangarhar province. As the two sides exchanged fire, a third militant still in the car detonated a large bomb inside the vehicle.

The blast killed nine bystanders and wounded another 24 people, including a policeman. Six of the dead and three of the wounded were children studying the Quran inside a nearby mosque, according to police and Jalalabad hospital director Dr. Humayun Zahir. All three attackers also died, although it was not clear how many were killed by police fire and how many by the explosion.

There was no indication that Saturday's attack was linked to U.S. warnings of an al-Qaida threat that has prompted Washington to close its embassies in the Muslim world for the weekend.

The Afghan Taliban denied in a text message that it had carried out the attack. While some Taliban claims have proven spurious in the past, suspicion in Saturday's assault fell to Pakistan-based militant groups — because of the target as well as the location. Such groups have blamed for past violence against Indians in Afghanistan, including two attacks on the embassy in Kabul in 2008 and 2009 that killed 75 people.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20130803/AS-Afghanistan/

[bigdog 376]

US needs to get off the defensive and be offensive, but it is not OB's style.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

US needs to get off the defensive and be offensive, but it is not OB's style.

How does this incident have anything to do with the US?

[Peikko 1,575]

The US should have bombed Afghanistan and Pakistan out of existence, then there would be no Taliban to carry out these dastardly plots, I guess.