Suicide Bombing at Afghan Market Kills Dozens

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/23/world/asia/afghanistan-suicide-bombing-market.html

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KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide attack on Wednesday that targeted Afghan security forces in a crowded market in the northern province of Faryab left about two dozen people dead and dozens more wounded, officials said.

Initial reports of casualties in the attack in Almar district, in the southwest of Faryab, were conflicting, with various officials putting the number of dead between 15 and 25. The district of 120,000 people, like large parts of the province, has been the site of fierce fighting in recent months as the Taliban have extended a wave of violence north as part of their annual offensive.

Abdul Sattar Barez, the deputy governor of Faryab, said at least 25 civilians were killed and 38 were wounded. But a police spokesman rejected that number, placing the casualties at 19 killed and 32 wounded. Except for one army soldier and two police officers, all the casualties were civilians, a security official said.

The bomber carried his explosives on a motorbike and blew himself up around 11 a.m. as his identity was being checked by security forces stationed in the market, said Naqibullah Fayeq, a member of Parliament from the province. The province’s one hospital and two small clinics were overwhelmed, he said.

“The condition of many wounded victims is critical, and efforts have been made to transfer them to Balkh and other provinces as soon as possible,” Mr. Fayeq said.

Unlike in previous years, when the Taliban’s annual offensives largely focused on the south and east of the country, the insurgency has mounted daring attacks in the north this year.

Caught off guard as Taliban fighters neared major cities, the Afghan government turned to arming militias to support its security forces, undermining a process of disarmament that has cost hundreds of millions of dollars over the past decade. In recent weeks, major strongmen in the area have vowed to continue the rearmament if the government forces fail to push back the Taliban threat.

In Faryab, the Taliban are active in “almost all the districts,” Mr. Fayeq said. They control many strategic areas on the way to neighboring provinces, he added.

“The overall security situation in Faryab is petrifying, and the residents are very tense about their fate,” he said.

The province’s deteriorating situation has alarmed the government so much that the country’s vice president, Abdul Rashid Dostum, has traveled to the area to oversee the military operations. On Tuesday night, Mr. Dostum gathered the leadership of the security forces in his pink palace in Jowzjan, his home province, which borders Faryab.

“For at least 39 years, I wore the military uniform, and I don’t remember returning from a single battle, small or big, without implementing our plan and taking back the geography — even if it took one month, two months, three months, or 100, 200 or even 1,000 casualties in a day,” Mr. Dostum told the troops.

Late in the night, Mr. Dostum’s security guards came under enemy fire on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Sheberghan. In the crossfire, one insurgent was killed and one was captured, according to the vice president’s spokesman, Sultan Faizy.

“The vice president was at his compound while the attack happened,” Mr. Faizy said.

Mr. Dostum’s next plans are to lead a high-ranking delegation to Faryab. Mr. Fayeq said that intelligence briefings suggested the attack on Wednesday had been meant for that delegation, but that the security forces learned about the plan and started a search for anyone who might be involved.

“The purpose of the suicide bomber was to target the high-ranking government officials,” Mr. Fayeq said. “The incident, unfortunately, caused grave casualties to civilians.”