Afghan attack kills children and policeman

A bomb attack in an eastern Afghan province killed at least three children and a policeman on the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the government said today.

Interim President Hamid Karzai strongly condemned the attack yesterday in the Asmar area of Kunar province, saying it was an atrocity committed by “enemies of Islam.”

His office said in a statement that unidentified attackers set ablaze a truck, drawing a crowd, and then detonated a remote-controlled bomb.

“The terrorists that perpetrated this attack showed once more their barbarous, inhuman and un-Islamic face by the killing of innocent civilians, especially children,” Karzai said in a statement.

“Clearly, only the enemies of Islam could commit such an atrocity on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan.”

Afghanistan had a public holiday yesterday for the start of Ramadan, when Muslims observe a dawn-to-dusk fast.

The attack came a week after millions of Afghans voted in the country’s first direct presidential election, which passed off largely peacefully despite a threat of attacks by Taliban-led rebels active in the east and south of the country.