Afghan Blast Raises New Doubts in Europe
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and RACHEL DONADIO
Published: September 17, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan — A powerful suicide bomb that killed six Italian soldiers here on Thursday prompted Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy to declare that his nation had begun planning to “bring our young men home as soon as possible.”
An Afghan man carried his wounded son from the site of the bomb attack in Kabul against vehicles with the NATO-led force.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in Brussels on Thursday, was quoted by Reuters as saying: “We are all anxious and hopeful to bring our boys home as soon as possible.”
An Afghan doctor treated an boy injured during a suicide bomb blast in Kabul on Thursday.
Enlarge This Image
Musadeq Sadeq/Associated Press
A covered body is seen at the site of a suicide car bomb attack that targeted an Italian military convoy in Kabul on Thursday.
In Brussels, Mr. Berlusconi, a close American ally but in some political trouble at home, was careful to say that Italy would not unilaterally withdraw its 3,100 troops from Afghanistan, though he said he wanted the withdrawal to happen “as quickly as possible.” But it seemed the strongest expression yet from a European leader of the rising doubts about the Afghanistan mission among America’s allies.
“We are all convinced that it would be best for everyone, whoever they are, to remove our conspicuous presence from Afghanistan quickly,” Mr. Berlusconi said.
Senior elected officials in Germany and Britain have also expressed weariness with the mission as violence has increased and casualties have mounted.
Meantime, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan dismissed complaints that the Aug. 20 presidential election had been marred by widespread fraud and ballot-stuffing, saying he was “surprised and rather shocked” that European Union election monitors had warned that 1.1 million of his 3.1 million votes were suspicious. Western governments, he said, should “respect the people’s vote.”
Mr. Karzai conceded that some government officials had been “partial” to him and some to other candidates, in what appeared to be his first acknowledgment that some fraud had occurred. He said, however, there was little evidence of widespread irregularities. “I believe firmly, firmly in the integrity of the election,” Mr. Karzai said.
The election monitors said 300,000 of the 1.6 million votes for Mr. Karzai’s closest competitor, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, also needed to be reviewed.
Preliminary tallies have Mr. Karzai winning 54.6 percent of the vote. But at least 15 percent of the ballots are now being audited for fraud under orders from a United Nations-backed commission.
A number of Western diplomats are convinced that if all fraudulent ballots were discarded, Mr. Karzai would be left with less than 50 percent of the vote, forcing him into a runoff with Mr. Abdullah. If a runoff were ordered, the harsh winter weather here could prevent it from taking place until April, deepening the leadership vacuum for months.
On Thursday, Mr. Abdullah said that he would not join in any coalition government with Mr. Karzai, and that no one from his camp had held any discussions with Karzai officials about forming a coalition. “Illegitimate rule in itself is a recipe for instability,” he said, urging that fraud investigations be pursued to the end.
The dispute over the election risks leaving the country with a government widely seen as illegitimate and undermining efforts to bolster commitments for troops and other resources from Western countries.
If Mr. Berlusconi does remove Italian troops from Afghanistan quickly, it will not be the first time he has reconsidered a military commitment. Although he supported the war in Iraq from the outset, in 2006 he decided to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq; that war had become deeply unpopular with Italians, and Mr. Berlusconi was facing a national election, in which he was eventually defeated.
Re-elected in 2008, Mr. Berlusconi has maintained strong support for the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan. Yet after a summer of sex scandals, his grip has been loosening over his center-right coalition, which includes parties that advocate staying in Afghanistan and others demanding withdrawal.
In televised remarks in Brussels late Thursday evening, Mr. Berlusconi said that Italy planned in the coming weeks to withdraw the 500 additional troops it had sent to Afghanistan before the presidential election last month. “But we have to decide that in the cabinet and with our allies,” he added.
Mr. Berlusconi, who looked tired and tense, emphasized that there would be a reduction in troops, not a full withdrawal. “We should not abandon this undertaking,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Umberto Bossi, the leader of the Northern League, arguably the most powerful party in Mr. Berlusconi’s coalition, reiterated his calls for an immediate withdrawal of Italian troops. “I hope by Christmas everyone can come home,” Mr. Bossi said, according to the news agency ANSA.
But the Italian defense minister, Ignazio La Russa, said in Parliament that the bomb attack would not stop Italy’s “firm commitment” to the international mission.
The powerful suicide car bomb exploded about noon in central Kabul near the heart of the American and NATO military command. It blew an Italian armored vehicle across two lanes of traffic and, according to Italian officials, left six soldiers dead and four wounded.
Afghan officials said 10 Afghan civilians were also killed and 52 wounded, many at a small bazaar of vegetable stands and other shops on the side of the road. Pieces of human flesh were strewn about the scene. Two bodies were in the middle of the road, and the twisted wrecks of bicycles and cars were thrown onto a side road.
“First there was a huge bang,” said Mohammad Faisal, 18, a student who was close enough to the blast that he was covered in dust. After the initial explosion, he said, he heard “small explosions” within a heavily damaged Italian vehicle, which he and other onlookers speculated were from ammunition inside.
“There were casualties among the foreigners,” he said. “I saw them carrying the bodies.”
A shop owner, Khuja Hedayatullah, 40, waded through his wrecked pharmacy, with smashed bottles of syrups and other medicine scattered about the floor. He said the aftermath of the explosion seemed like the end of the world.
“Within a few seconds I found myself in the middle of huge flame, smoke and dust,” Mr. Hedayatullah said. “Many people were bleeding on the ground.”
Richard A. Oppel Jr. reported from Kabul, and Rachel Donadio from Rome. Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting from Kabul.
Published: September 17, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan — A powerful suicide bomb that killed six Italian soldiers here on Thursday prompted Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy to declare that his nation had begun planning to “bring our young men home as soon as possible.”
An Afghan man carried his wounded son from the site of the bomb attack in Kabul against vehicles with the NATO-led force.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in Brussels on Thursday, was quoted by Reuters as saying: “We are all anxious and hopeful to bring our boys home as soon as possible.”
An Afghan doctor treated an boy injured during a suicide bomb blast in Kabul on Thursday.
Enlarge This Image
Musadeq Sadeq/Associated Press
A covered body is seen at the site of a suicide car bomb attack that targeted an Italian military convoy in Kabul on Thursday.
In Brussels, Mr. Berlusconi, a close American ally but in some political trouble at home, was careful to say that Italy would not unilaterally withdraw its 3,100 troops from Afghanistan, though he said he wanted the withdrawal to happen “as quickly as possible.” But it seemed the strongest expression yet from a European leader of the rising doubts about the Afghanistan mission among America’s allies.
“We are all convinced that it would be best for everyone, whoever they are, to remove our conspicuous presence from Afghanistan quickly,” Mr. Berlusconi said.
Senior elected officials in Germany and Britain have also expressed weariness with the mission as violence has increased and casualties have mounted.
Meantime, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan dismissed complaints that the Aug. 20 presidential election had been marred by widespread fraud and ballot-stuffing, saying he was “surprised and rather shocked” that European Union election monitors had warned that 1.1 million of his 3.1 million votes were suspicious. Western governments, he said, should “respect the people’s vote.”
Mr. Karzai conceded that some government officials had been “partial” to him and some to other candidates, in what appeared to be his first acknowledgment that some fraud had occurred. He said, however, there was little evidence of widespread irregularities. “I believe firmly, firmly in the integrity of the election,” Mr. Karzai said.
The election monitors said 300,000 of the 1.6 million votes for Mr. Karzai’s closest competitor, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, also needed to be reviewed.
Preliminary tallies have Mr. Karzai winning 54.6 percent of the vote. But at least 15 percent of the ballots are now being audited for fraud under orders from a United Nations-backed commission.
A number of Western diplomats are convinced that if all fraudulent ballots were discarded, Mr. Karzai would be left with less than 50 percent of the vote, forcing him into a runoff with Mr. Abdullah. If a runoff were ordered, the harsh winter weather here could prevent it from taking place until April, deepening the leadership vacuum for months.
On Thursday, Mr. Abdullah said that he would not join in any coalition government with Mr. Karzai, and that no one from his camp had held any discussions with Karzai officials about forming a coalition. “Illegitimate rule in itself is a recipe for instability,” he said, urging that fraud investigations be pursued to the end.
The dispute over the election risks leaving the country with a government widely seen as illegitimate and undermining efforts to bolster commitments for troops and other resources from Western countries.
If Mr. Berlusconi does remove Italian troops from Afghanistan quickly, it will not be the first time he has reconsidered a military commitment. Although he supported the war in Iraq from the outset, in 2006 he decided to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq; that war had become deeply unpopular with Italians, and Mr. Berlusconi was facing a national election, in which he was eventually defeated.
Re-elected in 2008, Mr. Berlusconi has maintained strong support for the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan. Yet after a summer of sex scandals, his grip has been loosening over his center-right coalition, which includes parties that advocate staying in Afghanistan and others demanding withdrawal.
In televised remarks in Brussels late Thursday evening, Mr. Berlusconi said that Italy planned in the coming weeks to withdraw the 500 additional troops it had sent to Afghanistan before the presidential election last month. “But we have to decide that in the cabinet and with our allies,” he added.
Mr. Berlusconi, who looked tired and tense, emphasized that there would be a reduction in troops, not a full withdrawal. “We should not abandon this undertaking,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Umberto Bossi, the leader of the Northern League, arguably the most powerful party in Mr. Berlusconi’s coalition, reiterated his calls for an immediate withdrawal of Italian troops. “I hope by Christmas everyone can come home,” Mr. Bossi said, according to the news agency ANSA.
But the Italian defense minister, Ignazio La Russa, said in Parliament that the bomb attack would not stop Italy’s “firm commitment” to the international mission.
The powerful suicide car bomb exploded about noon in central Kabul near the heart of the American and NATO military command. It blew an Italian armored vehicle across two lanes of traffic and, according to Italian officials, left six soldiers dead and four wounded.
Afghan officials said 10 Afghan civilians were also killed and 52 wounded, many at a small bazaar of vegetable stands and other shops on the side of the road. Pieces of human flesh were strewn about the scene. Two bodies were in the middle of the road, and the twisted wrecks of bicycles and cars were thrown onto a side road.
“First there was a huge bang,” said Mohammad Faisal, 18, a student who was close enough to the blast that he was covered in dust. After the initial explosion, he said, he heard “small explosions” within a heavily damaged Italian vehicle, which he and other onlookers speculated were from ammunition inside.
“There were casualties among the foreigners,” he said. “I saw them carrying the bodies.”
A shop owner, Khuja Hedayatullah, 40, waded through his wrecked pharmacy, with smashed bottles of syrups and other medicine scattered about the floor. He said the aftermath of the explosion seemed like the end of the world.
“Within a few seconds I found myself in the middle of huge flame, smoke and dust,” Mr. Hedayatullah said. “Many people were bleeding on the ground.”
Richard A. Oppel Jr. reported from Kabul, and Rachel Donadio from Rome. Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting from Kabul.
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