Bicycle bomb kills 8 in southern Afghanistan

A bomb concealed on a bicycle killed 8 people and injured 38 on Wednesday in southern Afghanistan.

A bomb concealed on a bicycle killed 8 people and injured 38 on Wednesday in southern Afghanistan,as the Pentagon’s top military officer said NATO forces hope to reverse the Taliban’s momentum in the south with an upcoming offensive in the region’s main city.

The bomb went off in the Nahri Sarraj district just north of Lashkar Gah,the capital of Helmand province,police said. It exploded near people who gathered to receive free vegetable seeds provided by the British government as part of a programme to encourage them not to plant opium poppy,provincial government spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said.

Kamaluddin,the deputy provincial police chief who uses only one name,originally put the death toll at 17,but said the higher figure had been the result of a miscommunication.

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Kamaluddin said 38 had been injured,while NATO said in a statement that reports at midday indicated that more than 35 civilians were wounded in the blast. NATO said its forces were helping Afghan authorities control the scene and that an investigation was underway.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack,and the acting head of agriculture in Helmand,Ghulam Sahki,suggested it could have been the work of drug dealers trying to stop the alternate crop programme.

A recent NATO operation in the Helmand town of Marjah,south of Lashkar Gah,struck at the heart of the Taliban’s opium business that funds the insurgency.

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