Gunfire hit most of Afghan bomb victims

Source: ap

Gunfire hit most of Afghan bomb victims

By ALISA TANG JASON STRAZIUSO and FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 30 minutes ago



BAGHLANI-JADID, Afghanistan - Up to two-thirds of the 77 people killed and 100 wounded in a suicide bombing last week were hit by bullets from visiting lawmakers' panicked bodyguards, who fired on a crowd of mostly schoolchildren for up to five minutes, a preliminary U.N. report says.


Afghanistan's Interior Ministry says only a "small number" of the victims were hit by gunfire, but an Afghan official in Baghlan province told The Associated Press that bodyguards were "raining bullets" on the crowd.

The suicide bomb contained ball bearings, the Interior Ministry said, which may have caused wounds that look like bullet holes.

An Afghan doctor who treated patients after the Nov. 6 blast, meanwhile, told the AP that a high-ranking government official told him not to publicly reveal the number of gunfire victims, suggesting a possible government cover-up.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071117/ap_on_re_as/afghan_bombing_aftermath;_ylt=AguNnHSv170OHgE6yzM88DOs0NUE