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Subscribe to RSSA blast killed 10 Afghan girls who were collecting firewood in eastern Afghanistan, according to government officials. In a separate incident, two Afghans died in an attack in Kabul. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
Updated at 9:50 a.m. ET: A blast killed 10 Afghan girls Monday as they were collecting firewood in eastern Afghanistan, government officials said.
It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion in volatile Nangarhar province. It could have been a bomb planted by Taliban insurgents or a landmine left over from decades of conflict.
UN calls for Afghanistan to protect women from rape, forced marriage
The girls, between nine and 11 years old, were collecting wood in remote Chaparhar district, near the porous border with Pakistan, which is infested with some of the world's most dangerous militant groups.
PhotoBlog: Prayers for girls killed as they collected firewood
"Unfortunately, 10 little girls were killed and two others wounded but we don't know whether it was planted by the Taliban," said Ahmadzia Abdulzai, provincial government spokesman.
Women and children are often the victims of the war between the Taliban and U.S.-led NATO and Afghan forces, now in its 11th year.
Noorullah Shirzada / AFP - Getty Images
Afghan volunteers carry the body of a girl killed when in an explosion as they were collecting firewood Monday.
Two killed in Kabul bombing
Meanwhile, a truck full of explosives blew up when it hit the offices of a U.S.-based company in the capital, Kabul, killing two Afghan civilians and wounding at least 15, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
The blast took place Monday at an office for the company Contrack, which sells and supplies generators in Afghanistan.
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The Interior Ministry spokesman said that two foreigners were among the wounded, but no further details on their national identities were immediately available.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing.
"A suicide car bomber attacked an important American company which is involved in security," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
"The company was under our surveillance for a long time and today we succeeded," the statement said.
According to its website, Contrack is headquartered in McLean, Va., and has had an office in Kabul since 2003. It was acquired by Orascom in 2005.
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More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.
After Monday's blast in Kabul, Western men clutching weapons walked outside the company compound as ambulances sped by, Reuters reported. A NATO soldier walked by parts of a building that was torn apart by the blast, which left a large crater. A brick wall collapsed.
The Taliban have expanded their reach beyond their strongholds in southern and eastern Afghanistan to some areas in the north that were relatively peaceful for years.
NBC News’ Akbar Shinwari and Reuters contributed to this report.
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"The girls, between nine and 11 years old, were collecting wood in remote Chaparhar district, near the porous border with Pakistan, which is infested with some of the world's most dangerous militant groups."
These are the net results of high dosage of one-way traffic, violent and dangerous Islamic heroin addiction.
The Islamic extremist Frankenstein monsters have started backstabbing big time the inventers of Pakistan, British, and the masters (US and allies) who kept them alive.
In most of the Islamic terrorism and plots in the US, Britain, Europe and other places, Pakis have a hand.
Half of NATO forces deaths in Afghanistan are due to Pakis.
Before followers of Islamic cult set their feet on Afghan and Paki regions, these regions were quite peaceful and prosperous.
Once the cancer of Islam gradually got control of the region, those regions have become raping, stealing, looting and killing fields.
In Afghanistan, Paki proxies Taliban did not even tolerate Buddha’s statue in Bamiyan.
Many Paki areas and some Afghan areas have become breeding and exporting centers for illegal activities including drugs growing and trading and export of Islamic radicals and terrorists all over the world.
British invented Pakistan in 47 and Pakistan is supposed to be a pure Islamic nation. In Pakistan, it was massive genocides of minorities in between 48-50.
Percentages of Hindus and Sikhs were reduced from about 24 percent less than three years by rapings, stealing, lootings, terrorizing and killing on a massive scale.
Paki Islamic religious madness did not end there.
Sunni Pakis are after Ahmedias, Sufis (fake love and dance Islamic soap opera people), Shiites (20 percent), Hazaras, and Baloochs and other minority sects/tribes.
Shiites, Sufis, Ahmedias and other minority sects/tribes people are blown up while they pray in their mosques on Fridays. And even hospitals are bombed to kill those injured.
Can Bush, oil companies and those cheering for Saudi Arabia and Pakistan explain us: which Islamic militant faction is going to get the Paki nukes?
Time has come to declare Pakistan a terrorist nation and dump it.
I'm sick of all the Pakistan labels on goods being sold in this country. I refuse to support this rogue nation and will not purchase anything labeled made in Pakistan.
Pakistan terrorizes it's minorities, it's women, it's allies, doesn't matter. They should rename the country Genocidestan.
http://hazaranewspakistan.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/10-hazaras-killed-in-quetta/
Allah Akbar ? What a crazy religion.
Yes I must repeat that Germany has outlawed Nazi ideology and wonder if the USA should consider doing the same thing in regards to Islam in our country?
chefaz and Phil: Your posts are great and depict reality!
Pakistan literally means home of Pashtoon,Afghani,Kasgek istan(country. P.A.Kistan.Pakistan has been at war with India for as long as it has been a country.Because the Hindus were fighting and killing the Ismalist when they live together after India declared it's independence from England,a separate country was set up exclusively by the English for the Islamist to live in.During a given period of time(60 days) in 1949,peoples of each religion were required to move from one area to another.The HIndus were removed from what is now Pakistan and the Islamist were moved from what is today India.At that time,Pakistan included the today cuontry of Bangladese,which latter broke off and formed its own islamic based country.While the movement of peoples took place,there were many deaths on either side.Next can the war which ,mostly India has won.Given the corruption that has always been found in Pakistan,the war with /india,Pakistan determined it needed a nuclear bomb and a rocket that could carry it to the heart of India,so they built and tested one.Pakistan is eccentially broke.They collect 8% of all taxes due to the federal governemnt,the highest of all cont=utries on earth.Corruption runs the ganbit.Their rlationship with Afganistan was been carved from mutual belief systems and the need to sell their illegal dope products all over the world.Ninety percent of all herion poppies are produced in Afghanistan or Pakistan.It's an association,until recently,was one of trade.
mas098: At the time of partition of India, Muslims formed eight percent in India and now they form more than 14 percent.
When Muslims form more than 40 percent, then they start their genocides of non-Muslims in a big way. That is what has been going on in Pakistan and the current Bangladesh!
With less than five percent of Muslim population, see the Muslim, especially Pakis, indulging in terror acts and plans right in the US.
In 9/11, Saudis and Pakis had hands! UAE funding was there.
Allah rocks.
We all share the grief of losing children. No religion except satanism promotes the killing of children. We will eventually take all of ourselves out of life. There will be no one to go on. This is madness.
Our nation grieves the death of twenty children,and the adults killed by a shooter with a gun. Yet how many will mourn the death of these innocent young children, ten girls 3-5 years older? Hardly many I will guess, will even notice. Simply because they died farther away, believing in a different faith, and were citizens in another country.
Yet were their lives any less valuable and precious? Do their parents deserve less support and prayers? How ironic, that with just a few different details, compassion can be so easily dismissed towards others.The measure and test of what it means being a true decent human being is revealed often times, by the simplest measures.
May these precious souls be at peace, and their families receive the support, comfort and strength they will need in the coming days ahead.While those responsible, and all who engage in evil works,swiftly meet the true justice which awaits all such workers and bringer of grief, where ever they be found.
I imagine their country will mourn them all. At least those who have a decent heart.
This killing is not going to stop until they are all dead, no one wants it to stop and I don't think they even remember what it is all about any longer. The war has been going on for entirely too many years.
Windancersong -
I thought the same thing when I read the article, but I have to think that if a lot of the people on the Vine were not caught up in the tragedy in Connecticut, they would be here to comment on the sadness of the passing of the lives of these children.
It doesn't matter what country they are from or what the circumstances of their death, to lose those so young who might have, as adults, made a positive contribution to their own corner of the world, is sad beyond compare.
When I think of their mothers, already in the midst of circumstances dire enough to live such as they do that they had to send nine year old girls out in such dangerous areas to gather firewood, having to face the loss of those children, I just don't know how they go on.
any possibility it was a American drone strike?
History has shown that religious madness is the worst and a Frankenstein monster.
Religion also has to reform with times.
Here followers of Islam instead of reforming, have moved backwards fast!
Please don't give crap of excuses, abuses and lies. READ THE WRITING ON WALL INSTEAD!
Muslims will find out: if Islam does not reform with times, Islam will become history like communism and many religions before!
You do know that second most powerful and most populace country in the world is communist.
VeniVidiVici: In the most populated China, most know about the US more than communism!
In Russia, you may know that all the statues of Lenin, Stalin and Marx are gone!
Communism is the example of more the violence, quicker the death.
Islam will meet a similar fate if it does not reform fast with times.
How long before one of the gun nuts shows up here claiming........... well there you go and it wasn't a gun that did it it was a bomb are we gonna ban bombs too, doh.......... They are too stupid to see a tree in the forest. Don't get me wrong I do like to shoot, just that I like to shoot at clays and targets in a gravel pit. I don't need any 20 or 30 round magazines. I am a recovering ex member of the NRA. I think the new meaning of NRA ought to be "Nugent's Really an A$$hole". On a related topic I heard that 3 Vietnamese kids were killed a week ago from unexploded ordinance left over from our intervention in Vietnam, so this is sad but not going to end soon I am afraid.
I have a question for all those who instead of realizing that this news is as bad as the one from sandy hook.
How many of you discussed the religion of the person who killed 20 kids in sandy hook???
how many of you ever discuss religion if they suspect is not muslim or the place of incident is not a muslim country??
To all those not realizing, but the loss is exaclty the same. A Muslim parent losing a child is no different than any other parent. If you cant show sympathy or respect to the parents. Please keep ur stupid comments to yourselves. Thanks
When Muslims kill or become martyr in suicide bombings, they are promised 72 virgins.
Which religion does those sorts of crap?
Jihad against infidels is part of Islam.
Infidel is a broad term and anyone can be pushed into an infidel. Some may give garbage spins even on the realities going on since the birth of Islamic cult!
So many followers of Islam love killings and for them realities sound stupid!
The state of being in denial is the worst crime and encourages mad killings as being done by many Muslims.
These have become common wherever Muslims form more than five percent.
It is a culture of violence in the world that needs to be addressed - if all the money we spend on wars was used to benefit common people this would have been a much better place. We Americans spend more money on defense than the rest of the world combined. Demand to end this craziness.
The world obviously need to ban firewood. If people weren't trying to stay warm or cook food then this tragedy never would have happened.
Way to go Taliban. I am sure your mothers are SO proud. F*CKERS!! Rip little ones
if one wanted to know how blood thirsty the U.S.GOVT. and BRIT'S are for OIL they should have watched the documentary AMERICAM COUP, on LINK TV, about how the U.S. used the CIA in it's FIRST overthrow of an elected democratic govt. IRAN in 1953. for those that are not biased and have an independent mind you can understand why populations aroud the world (not GOVT.S that have their hands out for $$) hate us. It really showed how SLIMY our govt. is! and has been.
Really speaking by only banning guns, we are not going to resolve the issue when our own government and senators like John McCain and Graham are advocating day and nights about WAR, WAR and Wars everywhere in the world. The best way should be to stop such war mongers to be our leaders and change our culture of violence, gun diplomacy, war mongering and trigger hunger. It surely pain to see our own kids die in our schools, but still we are not getting any pain when our guns, missiles and bombs kill hundreds and thousands of kids around the globe.
Well said, John. We Americans glorify violence 24/7 even at the highest levels of society, spending more money on the so called defense (it is actually always offense) than the rest of the world combined. Look at our movies and games - violence sells in both politics and Hollywood. And then we act surprised when some homegrown nutcase kills little children in their school. Karma is a biatch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrHFB2KP8fc