Afghan Workers, Troops Hit in Kabul Bombings

Resurgence of Taliban Keeps Capital on Edge

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 5 -- Three bombs apparently aimed at buses carrying government workers and Afghan troops exploded in the capital during morning rush hour Wednesday, killing at least one person and wounding at least 45, officials said.

The blasts occurred one day after two similar bombs were set off here, injuring 10. In those attacks, one bomb exploded near a bus carrying workers to the Interior Ministry and the second detonated in a vendor's cart near the Justice and Finance ministries, several hundred yards from the presidential palace.

The streets of downtown Kabul were virtually deserted at midday Wednesday, normally a time of heavy lunch-hour traffic when people browse among thousands of sidewalk vendors.

Afghanistan is in the grip of an increasingly aggressive anti-government insurgency and U.S.-led counteroffensive in which more than 600 people, most of them suspected rebels, have died since early May. Most attacks have taken place in the rural south and east, where guerrillas can hide in rugged terrain and seek refuge across the border in Pakistan.

But in recent weeks, attacks have begun occurring in major cities and provincial capitals including Kandahar and Qalat in the south, Kabul, and Herat in the far west. This past week, a girls school was bombed and burned in Herat, a suicide bomb exploded on the main highway through Qalat, and a suicide bomber reportedly tried to attack the home of former Kandahar governor Gul Agha Shirzai, killing three people.

The first of Wednesday's bombs was detonated by remote control near Kabul's Holy Prophet mosque at about 7:30 a.m. as a bus carrying about 30 Afghan soldiers troops passed by. The bus exploded and crashed into some nearby shops.

"I was directing traffic and trying to clear a path for the army bus when I heard a terrible noise," said Mohammed Sadeq, a police officer. "I saw injured men jumping from the bus windows as it burned.

"People are really frightened now," he added. "I am afraid Afghanistan is going to become another Iraq."

A second bomb hidden in a hand cart exploded 15 minutes later in northern Kabul as a bus carrying Commerce Ministry employees drove by. One bystander was killed and eight others were injured, police and witnesses told the Associated Press.

A third explosion in eastern Kabul targeted an Afghan army convoy. Nobody was hurt, police officer Mohammad Nasim told the Associated Press.

In two of the bombings this week, one Tuesday and one Wednesday, officials said the explosive devices were planted in wheelbarrows which laborers load and pull for hire, then detonated as government buses passed. In the Tuesday blast, a cart puller reportedly lost both legs.

Officials have attributed the stepped-up attacks to "enemies of Afghanistan," a vague designation that generally includes fighters from the revived Islamic Taliban militia, militiamen working for fugitive leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and other groups opposed to the government of President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers.

The increasing violence in the Afghan capital, several hundred miles from the Pakistani border, has set the urban populace on edge. Security personnel have intensified searches of Afghans in cars and on motorcycles, and pedestrians entering government buildings and foreign embassies.

"We were drinking tea when we heard the blast" Wednesday morning, said Amruddin, a metal worker whose shop, now burned black, is across from the Holy Prophet mosque. "The bus went out of control and came down the street at us.

"Everyone is afraid now," he added. "We do not know who is doing this, and we are not made of stone."

"I saw five bodies on the ground and I saw the other soldiers stuck in the bus," said a mechanic who gave his name as Mustafa. "I worry a lot, because if such explosions keep happening, how will the poor people be able to get to work?"

The capital is patrolled by several thousand troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, as well as Afghan police. There are currently more than 20,000 U.S. troops in the country, as well as troops from half a dozen NATO countries. Later this summer, the number of U.S. forces is scheduled to be reduced as NATO takes command of southern Afghanistan.

Special correspondent Javed Hamdard contributed to this report.