Will the virgins reject him for being underage? “Afghan: Boy suicide bomber kills children in attack on Kabul Nato headquarters,” by Ben Farmer in the Telegraph, September 8 (thanks to Anne Crockett):
A boy suicide bomber killed at least six people when he blew himself up close to Nato’s headquarters in Kabul, police said.
Several children were killed in the attack, which Taliban insurgents claimed was directed against a CIA office.
Kabul’s deputy police chief, Gen Daud Amin, said witnesses described the bomber as around 14 years old and carrying a bag.
He detonated himself in a street near the heavily fortified Nato headquarters, in an area close to Afghan government ministry buildings and the Italian embassy.
Children who sell chewing gum and trinkets to soldiers from the base were among the dead, he said. All the casualties were civilians and Nato said none of its personnel were killed or wounded.
The area is supposed to be one of the most heavily guarded in Kabul, but it has been breached by suicide attackers in the past. A car bomb close to the scene killed seven and wounded dozens in August 2009.
Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry, blamed the blast on the Haqqani Network faction of the Taliban, which has been held responsible for a string of suicide bombings and assaults on the capital.
The bombing came hours after the Pakistan-based network was designated a terrorist organisation by the American government. The classification will allow Washington to seize assets and block funding to the militant movement, which is considered the most sophisticated and dangerous arm of the insurgency.
Mr Sediqqi speculated the bombing was retaliation for the blacklisting.
Brig Gen. Günter Katz, a Nato spokesman, said: “If these reports are true, by taking advantage of an impressionable child to carry out this attack, the insurgents display cowardice.
“Forcing underage youth to do their dirty work again proves the insurgency’s despicable tactics. They are completely detached from Afghan society and the interests of the Afghan people who desire peace and stability in their country.”
Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said the attack had been carried out by a 28-year-old from Logar province. He said it had targeted a CIA torture centre and killed and wounded a number of American agents….