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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 17 May 2006

AFGHANISTAN: Suicide attacker targets UN vehicles

KABUL, 17 May 2006 (IRIN) - A suicide attacker in Afghanistan’s volatile southern province of Kandahar detonated an explosives-filled car near a convoy of vehicles belonging to the UN mine-clearing agency, killing himself and wounding an agency driver, the United Nations Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan (UNMACA) confirmed on Wednesday.

"There were two UNMACA vehicles heading from the airport towards Kandahar city when the suicide bomber detonated his explosives-filled car near their convoy,” Masood Ahmad Hamidzada, external relations officer for UNMACA, said. “One of our drivers was slightly injured and has been treated while the other is safe,” Hamidzada explained.

The bomber was the only person who died in the attack, according to police officials in Kandahar.

According to Hamidzada, both of the vehicles were unmarked and only one of the vehicles was damaged during the attack.

Wednesday’s attack was the second involving the United Nations in less than a week. Two men were killed and one was injured in an ambush on a UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) vehicle in the western province of Herat on Friday.

Commenting on this incident, Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said: ”I cannot say with certainty that this was an attempt to target the UN,” noting that both of the vehicles were unmarked.

Violence blamed on the Taliban insurgents who were toppled by US-led coalition forces in late 2001 has left many southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan off-limits to aid workers, government officials and police.

More than 500 people, many of them militants, have been killed during 2006 in various incidents in the war-ravaged nation, still recovering form over three decades of brutal civil war and internal strife.

[ENDS]

This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006