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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

AFGHANISTAN: Powerful explosion on Kabul-Jalalabad road

KABUL, 14 April 2003 (IRIN) - Authorities in Kabul reported a large explosion east of the capital on Sunday. The blast occurred late on Sunday night two and half km from the headquarters of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Yaka Tut District on the Kabul-Jalabad highway, about five km out of Kabul.

"It was a mine explosion mixed with some more explosives placed on the side of the road," Gen Abdul Rauf Taj, the chief of ninth precinct local police, told IRIN, noting that three men from a government security post were injured by fragments of flying glass, though there were no deaths or other injuries reported.

According to an ISAF spokesman, the explosion was the first of its type close to the city centre in the last few months. However, a Dutch ISAF patrol was attacked in the Chahar Asiab area of Kabul by an improvised explosive device last month. One of its local interpreters was seriously injured and one of the patrol's members slightly injured. There was another incident on 30 March, when two 122mm rockets were fired at ISAF locations.

ISAF did not comment on what could have been the target of Sunday's explosion. "I could not speculate, the Jalalabad road is a main road in Kabul, so nearly everything on that road could have been the target," the spokesman said.

Themes: (IRIN) Conflict

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