Two Afghan Blasts Kill at Least 15; Taliban Claims 1

[Fridays Child]

Two Afghan Blasts Kill at Least 15; Taliban Claims 1

Aug. 29, 2004 — By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL (Reuters) - At least 15 people have been killed in explosions in an upscale district of the Afghan capital Kabul and at a school in a southeastern province where nine children died, officials said Sunday.

The Taliban militia, vanquished by a U.S.-led uprising in late 2001, claimed responsibility for the Kabul blast, which killed at least three U.S. nationals involved in the training of Afghanistan's new police force and two Afghan policemen.

The Taliban, which is waging a campaign of violence to disrupt Afghanistan's presidential elections on Oct. 9, said a suicide bomber died in the attack.

"I contacted our colleagues and they said that it was a suicide attack by a Taliban fighter," Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi told Reuters by satellite phone.

More at http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20040829_143.html