0
KABUL: In Afghanistan's first major sectarian assault since the fall of the Taliban regime a decade ago, a suicide bomber slaughtered 56 Shia worshippers and wounded more than 160 others Tuesday outside a Shia shrine in the capital.
The body of a woman, clutching a dead child in each arm, was sprawled along a dirt road littered with shoes, bloodstained clothing, hats and body parts after the blast, which took place as a bombing killed four Shias in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
A loudspeaker at the shrine blasted a recitation of the Quran as ambulances with loud sirens rushed in to carry away the dead and wounded. Outside a hospital in Kabul, a man sobbing with other relatives cried out ''Mother! My mother!''
The Taliban condemned the attack, which was reminiscent of the wave of sectarian bloodshed that shook Iraq during the height of the war there. Suspicion centered on militant groups based in neighboring Pakistan where Sunni attacks on minority Shias are common.
A man who claimed to be from Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, a Pakistan-based group that has carried out attacks against Shia Muslims, called various media outlets in Pakistan to claim responsibility for the bombing in Kabul. The validity of the claim could not be determined.
Until now, the decade-long Afghan war has largely been spared sectarian violence, where civilians are targeted simply for their membership in a particular religious group. Tuesday's attack suggests that at least some militant groups may have shifted tactics, taking aim at ethnic minorities such as the Hazara who are largely Shia and support the Afghan government and its Western partners.
The Afghan Taliban, who are mostly ethnic Pashtuns and nearly all Sunni Muslims, had been attempting to diversify their ranks, expanding to areas outside their southern homeland, recruiting some Tajiks and others and forging an alliance with Uzbek militants in the north in an attempt to present themselves as a national resistance movement.
Unlike some Iraqi militant groups _ who consider anybody from the rival community a legitimate target _ the Taliban have generally refrained from mass attacks against purely civilian targets. They usually focus instead on the US-led coalition, Afghan forces or government offices, although recently the Taliban have been responsible for a rising number of civilian deaths in smaller attacks, according to a UN report.
Tuesday's powerful explosion in Kabul was the deadliest attack in the capital since July 7, 2008, when a suicide car bombing at the gates of the Indian Embassy killed more than 60 people.
The bomb went off shortly before noon as bare-chested men were beating and cutting themselves with knives and chains to mourn the death of one of their most beloved saints. They had gathered at the Abul Fazl shrine with a blue minaret to mark the holiday called Ashura, which honors the death of Imam Hussain, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in 680 A.D.
Black and gray smoke spiraled skyward from the bomb site after the blast. Lifeless bodies were lying on top of one another. Survivors with blood-smeared faces cried for help.
''It was a very powerful blast,'' said Mahood Khan, who is in charge of the shrine. ''It was out of control. Everyone was crying, shouting. It is a disaster.''
At roughly the same time in Mazar-i-Sharif, 185 miles (300 kilometers) to the north, four other Shias were killed and 21 were wounded when a bomb strapped to a bicycle exploded as a convoy of Shias was driving down a road, said Sakhi Kargar, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health.
In the southern city of Kandahar, one civilian was killed when a motorcycle bomb exploded. But the Kandahar provincial police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, said the blast did not appear related to the Shia holiday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, cutting short his trip to Europe after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, said the attack on Shias was unprecedented in scope and marked the first time that one had been carried out during a religious event.
''Without any doubt, the enemies of Afghanistan are trying to separate the Afghan people,'' Karzai said in a statement. He didn't blame any specific insurgent group, but when he uses the phrase ''enemies of Afghanistan,'' it is widely believed that he is referring to countries, including Pakistan, that he suspects are backing insurgents fighting in Afghanistan.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton condemned the attacks.
''These attacks directed at worshippers marking the Shia holy day of Ashura are deplorable, and those responsible show their complete disregard for the efforts of the Afghan people to make their country more stable, more peaceful, and more democratic,'' Clinton said in a statement.
Afghanistan's Shia community of mostly Hazaras make up about 20 per cent of the nation's 30 million population.
