Suicide Bomb Attack Kills 10, Injures 20 In Western Afghanistan

Suicide bombers killed at least ten people and wounded 20 persons on Tuesday morning in Afghanistan's Herat province, the Afghan authorities said. The unidentified bombers blew up a car laden with explosives outside a district headquarter building.

Herat province in western Afghanistan is one of the relatively peaceful regions in the country. The casualty count is expected to go up as several of the injured are in a critical situation. The attack happened when several civilians were waiting outside the district headquarter building, waiting for their turn to meet the officials for different purposes, the Associated Press report said.

The police tried to stop the vehicle as it entered the building. When a suicide bomber tried to enter the district headquarters, he was stopped by the police but then he detonated his explosives - right at the gate, said Nasar Ahmad Popul, chief of the province's Guzara district, as stated in the Associated Press report.

Bodies of three people, two men and one woman wearing a burqa, were found in the vehicle. Initial reports said that there was only one bomber. One of the bombers is totally shattered and the other person's body is still there with his [suicide] vest still unexploded, Herat province's head of police Sayed Agha Saqeb said, according to a BBC report.

The victims who died in the blast include seven civilians and three policemen. The provincial governor's spokesman Mohiddin Noori said that the number of casualties may rise, according to a Reuters report.

The incident has occurred at a time when the foreign combat troops are withdrawing from the province phase by phase. Most of the control of Herat province has been handed over to Afghanistan troops by the NATO forces. According to the US intelligence reports, insurgents with the aid of extremists from countries like Iran and Pakistan are trying to trigger violence in the region, exploiting the situation and this has raised concern among the neighbors and the West.

However, the repeated incidents of violence in the south and east Afghanistan region have also brought worries to the fore about the future of the country once the NATO forces leave as scheduled in 2014.