Insurgents set off bomb held by girl

June 27, 2011|Globe Wire Services

KABUL — Insurgents tricked an 8-year-old girl in a remote area of central Afghanistan into carrying a bomb wrapped in a cloth and then detonated the bomb remotely when she was close to a police vehicle, Afghan authorities said yesterday.

Only the girl was killed in the blast on Saturday, which occurred in Uwshi Village of Charchino District, said Fazal Ahmad Shirzad, the police chief of Uruzguan Province.

Shirzad said he believed that the girl was completely unaware that the bag that she had been given by Taliban insurgents held a bomb.

The girl’s body was later “taken to a nearby security check post, and the police called her relatives,’’ he said.

The insurgency occasionally uses children in its attacks in Afghanistan to avoid suspicion.

In May, a 12-year-old boy detonated a vest packed with explosives inside a bazaar in the Barmal District of the eastern province of Paktika, killing four civilians.