11MAY 2009 Public Affairs Report from Afghanistan
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
61 Afghan schoolgirls treated for apparent gas poisoning
CHARIKAR, May 11, 2009 (AFP) - More than 60 Afghan schoolgirls were admitted to hospital Monday with symptoms of poisoning, apparently from a gas, in the second case in the same town in two weeks, officials said.
Concerned relatives crowded the hospital in the town of Charikar, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Kabul, after the apparent mass poisoning at the Hora-i-Jalali Girls’ High School.
Sixty-one schoolgirls and a teacher were treated for symptoms such as headaches, vomiting and giddiness, said the head of the main hospital, Abdul Jalil Farhangi. Some had been discharged.
“I smelt something rather good, like a perfume,” one pupil, who gave her name only as Khatera, said from her hospital bed.
“I came out of the class and then I collapsed. When I opened my eyes, I was in the hospital,” said the girl, aged about 16.
Another schoolgirl, Mawloda, also said the smell had been pleasant. She collapsed when she reached home, said the teenager, who had a drip in her arm.
The students had not consumed the same food or water and the chances they had inhaled a poisonous gas were “quite high”, Farhangi said. There was however no evidence it was a deliberate attack, he said.
Blood samples had been sent to Kabul and to the medical facility of a nearby US military base, said provincial health director Mohammad Qasim Sayedi.
Tests after a previous case at a different school in the same town late April had not yet been returned, he said.
In that incident more than 40 girls from a school about two kilometres away were treated in hospital for symptoms of poisoning, also apparently from gas.
Officials said there were no chemical or gas plants in the area and a natural cause was unlikely.
Asked of the possibility of it being an attack by Taliban or other insurgents, provincial police chief Khalilullah Ziayee said he could not comment until the investigation was complete.
The Taliban were in government between 1996 and 2001.
They and other radical Islamic factions who also oppose the education of girls are waging an insurgency against the new administration that has seen several attacks on boys’ and girls’ schools.
State PAO: Afghan Daily Media Report 10 May 09
Kabul US Embassy Public Affairs Office in English 10 May 09 Several Print Media reported that two people were arrested for links with the Taliban in the Guldara district of Kabul province on Saturday. The NDS said that Maulvi Abdul Wali and Painda Mohammad have confessed to planning rocket attacks against the Mir Bacha Kot district of Parwan province, and Bagram Air base. The report added that weapons, explosives and timers were discovered in their possession.
8 militants, 3 cops killed in Ghazni battle
Sher Ahmad Haider - May 11, 2009 - 15:56GHAZNI CITY (PAN): Eight armed Taliban and three police men have been killed during a clash in Qarabagh district of southern Ghazni province last evening, police said on Monday.
Two explosions kill an Afghan police, wound 3 others
Media: Xinhua
Byline: N/A
Date: 11 May 2009
KABUL, May 11, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) — Two roadside bombs rocked Sabari district of Khost province in east Afghanistan, leaving one police officer dead and three others injured over the past two days, a local official said Monday.
A foreign soldier was among the injured people when a roadside bomb struck his vehicle on Monday morning, Daulat Khan Qayumzai, governor of Sabari district, said.
However, the governor did not identify the nationality of the soldier while the U.S. soldiers are usually stationed in Khost province.
Qayumzai added that a similar incident happened Sunday evening, leaving one police officer dead and two others injured.
Taliban-linked roadside bombings and suicide attacks have been on a rise as seven people were killed and 20 others injured in twin suicide blasts in the southern Helmand province on Sunday.
UPDATE: US military: 44 Afghan cases of white phosphorus
Media: AP
Byline: N/A
Date: 11 May 2009
KABUL_The U.S. military says it has documented 44 cases where militants in Afghanistan have used white phosphorus in attacks or where the weapons have been found in caches.
Maj. Jenny Willis says insurgents are using white phosphorus in mortar attacks and in homemade bombs.
U.S. documents show that the most recent attack where militants used white phosphorus was last Thursday, when a NATO outpost in Logar province was hit with two rounds of white phosphorus fire. Most troops in Logar are American.
White phosphorus is a spontaneously flammable material that leaves severe chemical burns on flesh. Using it to illuminate a target or create smoke is allowed under international law, but rights groups say its use over populated areas constitutes a war crime.
No comments:
Post a Comment