KABUL, Afghanistan — A huge explosion in a truck Thursday killed 24 people south of Kabul, including 16 schoolchildren, 4 police officers and 4 bystanders, local officials said, as the death toll rose among American soldiers fighting in Afghanistan.
The explosion, which also wounded five civilians, happened in Logar Province when a truck loaded with firewood overturned and rolled into a roadside ditch late Wednesday.
When the police arrived early Thursday to clear the road, militants apparently detonated explosives in the vehicle, causing a blast that scattered debris almost a mile from the scene, officials said.
Attiqullah Lodin, the governor of the province, said the children, who were on their way to a secondary school, gathered near the overturned truck after the police arrived to investigate what seemed a routine accident and were killed when the blast went off. The truck had been traveling along the main road to Kabul from Logar.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/world/asia/10afghan.html?ref=global-home&pagewanted=print
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