BAGRAM AIR BASE, Sept 19: At least six people were killed on Friday in two blasts at an explosives-filled house next to the US-led coalition’s Afghanistan headquarters at Bagram Air Base, witnesses said.
No coalition troops were hurt in the explosion, which the US military said appeared to be an accident.
“Initial indications show that this incident was not the result of any hostile intent, but an accident involving persons operating at a local business engaged in the disassembly of ammunition and weapons components,” it said in a statement.
An eyewitness saw five bodies, including those of a woman and a child, and two wounded people carried from the blazing home in the village next to the gate of Bagram Air Base, 50 kilometres north of Kabul.
A 14 year-old boy in an alley near the house was killed by shrapnel when a rocket exploded after the main blast. Villagers said another six to 10 people were injured in the second explosion.
Residents said the dead, a teenage boy, a teenage girl and an infant, were from a family who sold explosives collected from leftover munitions to emerald miners.
A trader was storing mortars and rockets inside the house which exploded around 1:00 pm (0830 GMT), according to residents and the US military. It was unclear how he was able to keep so many munitions close to the tightly-guarded military base.
“Coalition personnel provided immediate medical support to the injured persons,” the US military said.Afghan authorities were investigating the blast.
US Major David Long said residents told them six people were living in the house.
Villagers also said six people — the owner, his wife and four children — lived in the house, and that a seventh had been staying there as a guest.—AFP/ Reuters
