Blast Rocks Building, Kills 25 in Afghanistan

In what was either a horrific industrial accident or a terrorist attack, a powerful explosion ripped through the eastern city of Jalalabad on Friday, leaving at least 25 people dead and destroying dozens of homes.

Initial police reports said the midday blast in Nangarhar province was caused by a car bomb at the Afghanistan Construction and Logistics Unit, a construction company.

But Deputy Gov. Mohammed Assef Qazi later told radio reporters that the source may have been explosives stored on the premises.

Assef said that the death toll may reach as high as 40 and that 80 people were hospitalized. The explosion knocked out power in the city after damaging a nearby hydroelectric facility.

The company was once a nongovernmental agency funded by the United Nations to rebuild Afghanistan’s war-ravaged infrastructure. But the firm reportedly became private in recent years.

Mohammed Sultan, military commander for the district, told Associated Press that he believed an explosives-laden car was detonated in a basement garage of the building. He blamed the blast on “Al Qaeda and the Taliban, the enemies of Afghanistan.”

Accident or act of terrorism, the explosion added to the jitters that many Afghans feel as the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks nears. There have been recent concerns that Al Qaeda is stepping up operations in Afghanistan.

The U.S. military Friday reported several recent encounters with Al Qaeda fighters, the latest being a firefight this week in which six members of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network were killed.

On Wednesday, a sniper shot and wounded a U.S. soldier with the 82nd Airborne Division in eastern Afghanistan. The unidentified sniper escaped.

The same day, 13 Al Qaeda prisoners escaped from a high-security prison in Kabul, the capital. All were slain after being cornered by security forces and refusing to surrender; three killed themselves.

Afghan security forces say they intercepted a would-be suicide car bomber July 29 who had planned to attack President Hamid Karzai. The driver was captured before he could detonate the bomb, and he later confessed to being a member of Al Qaeda, government officials said this week.

Jalalabad was the hometown of Afghan Vice President Haji Abdul Qadir, who was killed July 6 outside his office in the capital.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Friday that he did not view the recent clashes as a sign of escalating activity by Al Qaeda.

“These recent events underscore the fact that while we’ve made good progress in the war against terror, it certainly is far from over in Afghanistan and throughout the world,” Rumsfeld said.

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Times staff writer John Hendren in Washington contributed to this report.