Dozens killed in Afghanistan shrine blasts

Berlin: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday that twin bomb attacks which killed at least 59 people at Afghan shrines were the first "terrorist" acts on an important holy day.

It was "the first time that, on such an important religious day in Afghanistan, terrorism of that horrible nature is taking place," Karzai said at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The attacks occurred just a day after an international conference in Bonn on the future of Afghanistan after Nato troops pull out at the end of 2014.

Karzai also appealed to Afghanistan's neighbour Pakistan, which boycotted the Bonn meeting, saying it had "a very important role to play in the peace process in Afghanistan".

The bombings - one in Kabul which ripped through a crowd of worshippers including children, and another in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif - took place on the Shiite holy day of Ashura.

Condolences

Merkel also expressed her condolences over the attacks, saying they showed "we must continue to work hard in order to be able to ensure security in Afghanistan".

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said he condemned "these acts of terror in the strongest terms".

"They again show that we still have a long path ahead of us in our commitment to a peaceful future for Afghanistan," he said in a statement.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for te attacks.

At least 58 killed, 150 wounded

A total of 58 people were killed and at least 150 others wounded in twin bombings near Shiite shrines in Kabul on Tuesday, the health ministry said.

The first blast ripped through a crowd of worshippers at the entrance to a riverside shrine in central Kabul, where hundreds of singing Shiite Muslims had gathered to mark Ashura. 

"Fifty-four are dead and 150 others are injured," said health ministry spokesman Ghulam Sakhi Kargar Noorughli. A second blast at another another shrine in Mazar-i-Sharif killed four people, bringing the day's total death toll to 58. Officials fear the death toll may rise.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either blast.

"A suicide bomber detonated his explosives in the Abu-Ul Fazil shrine," Kabul police said in a statement, without giving any death toll.

An official said it was believed the bomber had arrived with a group of Shiite pilgrims from Logar province, south of Kabul.

A young girl, dressed in a green shalwar kameez that was smeared in blood, stood shrieking as she was surrounded by the crumpled, piled-up bodies of children.

"I was there watching people mourning (for Ashura) when there was suddenly a huge explosion," witness Ahmad Fawad said. "Some people around me fell down injured. I wasn't hurt, so I got up and started running. It was horrible," he said.

Men and women at the scene sobbed as they surveyed the carnage, and screamed slogans denouncing Al Qaida and the Taliban.

In Mazar-i-Sharif,  police spokesman Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai said that the blast was caused by a bicycle bomb, adding that four other people had also been injured.

And police said that five people were wounded by a motorcycle bomb in the southern city of Kandahar, the Taliban's heartland. But the police said the attack was unconnected to Ashura.

The blasts came the day after delegates at a key international conference in Bonn agreed to extend international support for Afghanistan to 2024 following the scheduled withdrawal of all foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.

Shiites beat and whip themselves in religious fervour during the 10-day Ashura ceremonies, which began on November 27 but peak Tuesday. They mark the seventh-century killing of a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).