Bomb kills 25 on Afghanistan bus

A bomb blast tore through a crowded passenger bus Wednesday on a desert highway in southern Afghanistan, killing 25 of those on board and injuring about 20 others, some seriously, government officials said. All were said to be civilians.

Afghan and Western officials quickly denounced the insurgency for the planting of homemade bombs along roads heavily used by noncombatants. So-called improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, are usually aimed at Afghan and NATO forces, but often wind up maiming and killing civilians instead.

About 7,000 Afghan civilians were killed by bombs from 2004 to ‘09, according to classified military documents posted on the Internet this week by the advocacy group WikiLeaks.

The bus, whose passengers included women and children, was traveling on a main road in Nimruz province, bound for the capital, Kabul, when it struck the buried bomb. Many Afghans cannot afford cars and are reliant on poorly maintained, jampacked passenger buses and minivans, especially for travel between major cities.

A North Atlantic Treaty Organization patrol came upon the charred, shattered bus and helped treat the wounded, Western military officials said.

The blast took place near the border with volatile Helmand province, which has seen heavy fighting between NATO forces and the Taliban. Military officials Wednesday reported the death of an American service member in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan a day earlier.

June was the deadliest month of the nearly nine-year-old war for American troops, and July looks set to equal or surpass that record. Most of the U.S. forces arriving as part of the 30,000-strong buildup ordered by President Obama late last year are being sent to the south, the Taliban heartland.

NATO officials say Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar recently rescinded orders given to his fighters last summer to try to avoid hurting or killing civilians. In recent months, insurgents have embarked on a campaign to kill or intimidate government workers and others perceived as complicit with the foreign forces.

A spokesman for the NATO force, Col. Rafael Torres, called the bus explosion a “tragic murder of Afghan civilians.”

The district chief in Delaram, where the blast took place, said the road was one of the most bomb-laden in the country. He said Afghan authorities had already decided a police checkpoint was needed in the area, but were still awaiting police to staff it.

“This is a sign of weakness, that the Taliban are placing IEDs that kill innocents,” said the chief, Assadullah Jan. “They want to demoralize the people.”

laura.king@latimes.com