Deadly suicide attack on Afghan hospital

At least 30 people killed and many others injured in bombing in eastern Logar province.


At least 30 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack at a hospital in Afghanistan.
Estimates of the casualties, which included patients and medical staff, varied widely as chaos enveloped the facility in Azra district of eastern Logar province, which is just south of capital Kabul. Dozens more were wounded in the attack.
Deen Mohammad Darwish, a spokesman for the Logar provincial government, said as many as 35 people were killed, although Afghanistan's Interior Ministry put the death toll at 20.

"The exact target is still not clear," Interior minister deputy spokesman Najib Nikzad said.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack in which he said "tens of civilians" were killed.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied responsibility for the attack. "We condemn this attack on a hospital ... whoever has done this wants to defame the Taliban," he said.
Din Mohammad Darwaish said the bomber had been driving an "an SUV packed with explosives".
"The target of the blast is not clear but what is obvious is that a hospital was attacked and civilians were killed ... The casualties are all patients, their visitors and relatives and hospital personnel."
Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith, reporting from Kabul, said the hospital was mainly treating women and children. He said the explosion had been described as "enormous" and had completely razed the building and one next to it.
The head of Logar's provincial council, Abdul Wali Wakeel, said local officials had contacted foreign forces to ask for help in evacuating the wounded to hospital.
Counterterrorism summit

Afghan civilian casualties

According to the UN, 76% of the civilian casualties in 2010 were caused  by anti-government fighters.

Saturday's attack came as Afghan President Hamid Karzai told a counterterrorism summit in Iran that despite his government's efforts, militancy was on the rise in both his country and the region.
"Unfortunately, despite all the achievements in the fields of education, infrastructure and reconstruction, not only has Afghanistan not yet achieved peace and security, but terrorism is expanding and threatening more than ever Afghanistan and the region," he told the opening session.
On Friday, 10 people were killed by a bicycle bomb, which went off in a busy bazaar in Khad Abad district of the northern province of Kunduz.
Earlier this week, US President Barack Obama announced that 33,000 US forces would leave Afghanistan by the end of next summer.
All foreign combat forces are due to pull out of the country by the end of 2014. There are currently up to 150,000 foreign forces in Afghanistan, including around 99,000 from the US.
Some analysts fear that Afghan security forces may struggle to contain violence, which has reached record levels, as withdrawals start to get under way.
Nearly 2,800 civilians were killed in Afghanistan last year, according to the United Nations.