Bomb Blast in Western Afghanistan Kills 10

Targeted police chief critically injured; Taliban claims responsibility
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Aug 3, 2009 10:23 AM CDT
Bomb Blast in Western Afghanistan Kills 10
An Afghan police officer is seen near the site of an explosion in Herat province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 3, 2009.   (AP Photo/Fraidoon Pooyaa)

A remote-controlled bomb exploded today in western Afghanistan's main city, killing 10 and critically wounding a district police chief, the main target of the attack. Police said 30 were injured. The bomb went off on a crowded street near a fruit market in Herat. The police chief for a nearby district was driving into town; he was transferred to a NATO-run hospital in critical condition, police said.

The blast blew out windows in a 100-yard radius. Several casualties were fruit vendors, a police spokesman said. Witnesses said the bomb left a 1-yard-wide crater in the street and damaged two police vehicles. A Taliban spokesman said the group targeted the police chief. Meanwhile, in the north of the country, an ambush on Korean road engineers at a construction site left one of their Afghan drivers dead, an official said. (More Afghanistan stories.)

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