Bus blast kills 27 Afghans

kabul, afghanistan -- A suicide bomber boarded a crowded army bus and detonated a huge explosion that ripped off the roof and blasted out the sides, killing at least 27 people and wounding 21 today, officials said.

Dozens of civilians and police officers picked through the charred hull of the bus immediately after the blast, searching for bodies. A high-ranking Afghan army medical official said 27 bodies had been taken to two hospitals. He asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

“For 10 or 15 seconds, it was like an atom bomb -- fire, smoke and dust everywhere,” said Mohammed Azim, a police officer who witnessed the explosion.

Residents helped police pick up body parts and put them into plastic bags.

“The explosion happened just after a group of Afghan national army soldiers got onto the bus,” said Mohammed Zaher, whose forehead was cut by flying glass.

It was one of the worst such attacks since the Taliban were ousted from power by a U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

In June, 35 people, most of them police recruits, were killed when a massive explosion tore through a police academy bus in the capital. The Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday that it had established contact with an armed group that abducted four of its workers but no progress has been made.

The four ICRC employees, one each from Myanmar and Macedonia and two from Afghanistan, were seized Wednesday while trying to secure the release of a German. Militants had initially released the German, but recaptured him along with the ICRC employees.