JALALABAD/KABUL – The death toll from Saturday’s suicide attack in east Afghanistan has risen to at least 40, making it the deadliest nationwide for more than eight months, and the worst insurgent assault in that region. Seven gunmen and suicide bombers, dressed as border policemen, attacked an office of private Kabulbank in Jalalabad city, starting a gun battle which lasted several hours.
The last toll given on Saturday put the number of dead at 18. But on Sunday, Nangarhar province governor Gul Agha Sherzai said 40 people had been killed, many of them Afghan police and soldiers. The following is a chronology of some of worst insurgent attacks since a US-led invasion toppled the rebels’ regime at the end of 2001: September 5, 2002: A double bombing near a ministry building in Kabul kills at least 30 people and injures over 160.
Hours later President Hamid Karzai escapes an assassination attempt in southern Kandahar city. November 6, 2007: 79 people, most of them schoolchildren, die when a suicide bomber attacks an official rally at a sugar factory in Baghlan province, north of Kabul. The Taliban deny involvement in the attack. February 17, 2008: At least 100 people die and dozens are injured when a suicide attacker blows himself up at a dog-fighting contest on the outskirts of the southern city of Kandahar.
The Taliban, who banned dog-fighting when they were in power, refuse to confirm their involvement. February 18, 2008: A Taliban suicide car bomb aimed at Canadian troops kills at least 37 civilians in a market for spare automobile parts in the town of Spin Boldak, close to the Pakistani border in Kandahar province.
July 7, 2008: There are more than 60 deaths in a car bomb attack on the Indian embassy building in Kabul. Five Indians are among the dead, two of them senior diplomats. The Taliban deny involvement, while the Afghan government accuses Pakistan’s intelligence service, of involvement.
August 25, 2009: A car bomb explodes in the centre of Kandahar killing 43 people and injuring 65. The Taliban denies responsibility for the attack, which takes place in a busy city centre shopping district, destroying a hotel and 12 houses.
March 13, 2010: At least 27 people are killed and more than 50 injured in a series of suicide attacks in Kandahar city.
Police say the bombers used bicycles and motorbikes in a coordinated attack appearing to target the main prison, where many Taliban militants are jailed. June 10, 2010: At least 40 civilians are killed in a suicide bomb attack at a wedding in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province. Afghan authorities accuse the Taliban, but they deny involvement in the attack.
