A Land Mine Destroyed Afghan Bus

Afghan officials said Friday that a recently planted land mine was the source of an explosion that ripped apart a minibus near Kandahar, killing nearly everyone inside.

The blast on the Rambisi Bridge was just one of the incidents being investigated Friday. The U.S. military began to study the cause of a helicopter crash Thursday that killed four special operations soldiers at an aerial gunnery range near Bagram air base, the American headquarters north of Kabul, the capital. No hostile fire was indicated.

The victims were with an elite aviation regiment known as the Night Stalkers based at Ft. Campbell, Ky., officials said Friday. They were identified as Sgt. Gregory M. Frampton, 37, of California; Chief Warrant Officer Mark S. O’Steen, 43, of Alabama; Chief Warrant Officer Thomas J. Gibbons, 31, of Maryland; and Staff Sgt. Daniel L. Kisling Jr., 31, of Missouri. No hometowns were given.

In the minibus attack, Interior Minister Ali Jalali said the driver and his assistant were the only known survivors. The driver said 15 people were killed, but police put the number as high as 18.

“When the explosion occurred, I heard cries. Then I lost consciousness,” said the driver, Ahmad Zia, 26. “When I woke up, I saw myself on the hospital bed.” A boy, 12, also survived, but his father and uncle died.

“It is likely that this is the work of the remnants of the Taliban or followers of Hekmatyar, but we don’t have clear information yet,” said Jalali, referring to former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Islamic militant leader opposed to the current Afghan government and its Western supporters. Others said Al Qaeda was probably responsible.

The Taliban movement took root in Kandahar in the early 1990s. Since the Taliban was driven from power in late 2001 by a U.S.-led military campaign, a large U.S. presence has helped keep the city relatively quiet.

But there have been consistent reports recently of increased militant activity in the Afghan south and along the border with Pakistan.

Kandahar is 70 miles from the Spin Buldak area, where U.S. troops have been searching for and attacking suspected Islamic militants all week.