Paghman attack toll revised: 33 dead, 79 wounded

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Ministry of Interior on Friday revised the death toll from the Paghman suicide attack on a convoy of buses carrying police cadets, saying 33 people were killed and 79 others wounded.

At least two Taliban bombers ambushed five police buses, two of which were destroyed by the powerful blasts in the Haidar Ali Khan area of Paghman district -- 20 kilometres west of Kabul.

The cadets were returning from a training centre in central Maidan Wardak province and were heading to the capital on leave. The first bomber targeted the bus carrying the trainee policemen and their instructors.

A second bomber attacked 20 minutes later, when policemen had arrived at the scene on the Kabul-Kandahar highway to evacuate the casualties. The Taliban claimed 150 police had been killed and dozens more wounded.

On Thursday evening the ministry had put the toll at 30 dead and 58 wounded. But in a statement on Friday, the ministry increased the number of dead to 33 and injured to 79. Two of the wounded are civilians and the rest trainee police.  

Initial investigations show the first attacker on foot blew himself up near the convoy before the second bomber crashed his explosives-laden car into the police buses. Two commissions had been tasked with probing the attack and preventing such incidents in future.

mud