Bombs target Afghan lawmakers

A bomb attack targeted a group of lawmakers in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least 28 people, including five parliamentarians, officials said. Death tolls varied widely in the confusion of the attack, which also wounded dozens of children.\nThe bomb exploded outside a Baghlan province sugar factory as the lawmakers were about to enter. The blast struck children, elders and government officials gathered to greet the visiting delegation of 18 lawmakers from the lower house, officials said.\nThe Ministry of Interior said at least 28 people were killed in the blast, but a doctor at Baghlan’s main hospital, Dr. Mohammad Yousuf Fayez, said dozens of bodies may also have been left at the blast site and collected by families, meaning they would not be counted officially. Earlier, a high-ranking government official said 64 people had died.\nAt least 42 schoolchildren were among 81 people wounded, Fayez said.\n“The children were standing on both sides of the street, and were shaking the hands of the officials, then suddenly the explosion happened,” Fayez said.\nShukria Barakzai, a lawmaker, said 18 of the 249 lower house parliamentarians had traveled to Baghlan province, and that 13 were dead or “in danger.”\nThe province of Baghlan lies about 95 miles north of Kabul.\nPresident Hamid Karzai’s office confirmed the deaths of five parliamentarians.\n“This heinous act of terrorism is against Islam and humanity and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms,” Karzai said in a statement. “It is the work of the enemies of peace and security in Afghanistan.”\nThe attack is among the deadliest in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. Taliban bombers have killed regional governors in the past, but never have militants killed so many high-ranking officials in one attack.\nA U.S. military spokesman said the blast was the same kind often carried out by the Taliban. Lt. Col. David Accetta, who condemned “this kind of terrorist and criminal attack,” said he had no information indicating al-Qaida was behind the explosion.\nAmong the lawmakers killed was Sayed Mustafa Kazimi, a former Afghan commerce minister and a powerful member of the political group Northern Alliance, said the lawmaker’s secretary. Kazimi also served as the spokesman of the largest opposition group in Afghanistan, the National Front.\nThis year has been the deadliest in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban. More than 5,700 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Western and Afghan officials.\nAssociated Press reporters Jason Straziuso and Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul contributed to this report.