Six Afghan lawmakers among 42 dead in attack

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — At least 42 people, including six Afghan lawmakers and a number of children, were killed Tuesday in the country’s deadliest suicide attack since the ouster of the Taliban, authorities said.

The bomber struck at a sugar factory in Baghlan province, north of Kabul, during a visit by a delegation from the lower house of parliament. The legislators, on an economic fact-finding trip, were being greeted by local dignitaries and youths at the time.

“The explosion happened when the school students were singing songs to welcome the lawmakers to their province,” said Zemeri Bashary, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

At least 45 people were injured, including several police officers and some children, he said.

Among the dead was Sayed Mustafa Kazimi, a former commerce minister who was a spokesman for the National Front, Afghanistan’s largest opposition group. Those wounded were reported to also include lawmakers.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but suicide bombings have become increasingly common among Taliban insurgents fighting the Afghan government and foreign coalition troops.

The Taliban today denied carrying out Tuesday’s attack.

An estimated 5,700 people have been killed in Afghanistan this year, the highest toll since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in December 2001.

The escalating bloodshed has put enormous pressure on the government of President Hamid Karzai, which is struggling to maintain public support.

“This heinous act of terrorism is against Islam and humanity, and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms,” Karzai said in a statement.

“It is the work of the enemies of peace and security in Afghanistan.”

Early today, Karzai announced that the death toll had risen from an earlier count of 28, and said there would be three days of national mourning. The attack eclipsed a bombing that killed 35 people aboard a bus carrying police recruits in June.

The exact death toll in Tuesday’s blast was unclear because some bodies may have been removed by the victims’ families before an official count. Some local officials put the number of dead at well over 50.

“I saw bodies lying in the streets, and some of the people were stealing the weapons of the dead soldiers. Children are screaming for help. It’s like a nightmare,” resident Mohammed Rahim told Reuters news service.

Rahim said that two of his cousins, both schoolgirls, died in the blast.

In Washington, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino called the attack “a despicable act of cowardice.”

“It reminds us who the enemy is: extremists with evil in their hearts who target innocent Muslim men, women and children,” she said.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the administration offered condolences to the people and government of Afghanistan.

The attack came before what some observers expect will be the traditional lull in fighting in Afghanistan during the winter.

The international forces and Afghan officials say that the Taliban has taken heavy losses in fighting this year, leaving it more reliant on guerrilla tactics such as suicide attacks and roadside bombs.

“They have lost the power to attack our security forces in a face-to-face battle,” Bashary said in a recent interview.

But the switch to such attacks has sowed fear among Afghans, who rate public security as the country’s No. 1 problem.

“Terrorism, unfortunately, produces the terror that it seeks to produce. It is not an impotent tactic,” U.S. Ambassador William B. Wood acknowledged during round-table talks with reporters in July.

“It does not threaten national institutions, it does not threaten governance in the way that an insurgency or more serious warfare does, but it does create this gnawing insecurity, this sense of personal insecurity.”

The Taliban traditionally has been strongest in the south and east, but its fighters have increasingly infiltrated the north and the central region around Kabul, the Afghan capital.

Bashary said that, beginning this winter, the government would launch a drive to beef up security operations in provinces around the capital. In addition to adding manpower, it plans to improve facilities and communication between Afghan police and the army.

On Tuesday, dozens of Taliban militants reportedly overran a district center in central Afghanistan and cut off the town’s main road.

In the southern province of Kandahar, rocket fire from insurgents narrowly missed Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay, who was visiting a small Canadian military outpost.

MacKay, unhurt, was quickly evacuated by helicopter.

henry.chu@latimes.com

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Special correspondent Faiez reported from Kabul and Times staff writer Chu from Lahore, Pakistan. Staff writer James Gerstenzang in Washington contributed to this report.