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Two held as death toll in Afghan bombing rises to 68

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published November 8, 2007

BAGHLANI-JADID, Afghanistan - Families of young people killed in Afghanistan's deadliest suicide bombing buried their loved ones Wednesday, while witnesses said some of the victims may have been killed or wounded by security guards who opened fire after the blast.

The death toll from Tuesday's bombing rose to at least 68, most of them children or teens. The blast occurred as the students greeted members of parliament who were visiting a sugar factory in the country's normally peaceful north. Six lawmakers were among the dead.

U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai and dozens of other Afghan leaders watched honor guards carry the lawmakers' coffins down a red carpet at Kabul's main airport after they were flown by helicopter from the blast site, about 95 miles north of the capital.

Two Afghans were arrested in connection with the attack. Provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Sayed Khail said the two had ordered women to leave the scene of the attack before the bombing, raising suspicions.

Hundreds of mourners gathered at a mosque near the blast site in the town of Baghlani-jadid before moving to a simple hilltop graveyard to bury the dead.

The town's schools were closed Wednesday, and reporters walking by mud-brick homes heard women inside screaming and crying.

Dr. Khalil Narmgui of the Baghlani-jadid hospital said 62 people had been buried in Baghlan province. He said 84 wounded people had been hospitalized. Khail, the provincial police chief, said 106 had been wounded in all.

Narmgui, who was at the site of the attack, said he heard gunfire from security personnel for a short time after the explosion.

Five people had been treated for bullet wounds in his hospital, he said. Baghlan's governor, Halam Isakzai, said it was possible some victims had been killed by the gunfire.

Karzai declared three days of mourning as officials investigated the bombing. No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

[Last modified November 8, 2007, 00:48:24]