A suicide bomber on a bicycle struck Mazar-i-Sharif yesterday, killing four Afghans in one of the country’s safest cities poised to transition from Nato to local control.
The attack will likely fuel fears that putting Afghan security forces in control of seven different areas this week is happening too quickly, with violence at a record high in the decade-long Taliban insurgency.
Police and ministry officials said 11 people were wounded in the explosion close to the northern city’s famous Blue Mosque.
“He was a suicide attacker,” said interior ministry spokesman Siddiq Siddiqi, who gave the toll and said all the casualties were civilians.
Bicycle parts were scattered across the ground, which was covered in glass shards and spatters of blood.
Ahmad Tamim, a teenage bread seller, said he was carting his wares along the street when the bomb went off. Shrapnel from the blast injured his cheek.
“There was suddenly a big explosion. I was thrown back,” he said. “I saw thick smoke rising from the bomb site and the car windscreens around were all shattered. Then police took me to hospital,” he said.
A police spokesman for Balkh province, of which Mazar is the capital, said the transition ceremony would go ahead this weekend but conceded to harbouring fears over insurgent activity in other parts of the province.
“The enemy have stepped up its efforts to create chaos and disrupt the transition of security,” said spokesman Shir Jan Durani, assuring the media that the police were fully in charge.
“We are, however, concerned about the security of some volatile districts in the province as there are not sufficient number of security forces to foil any major attempt by the enemy,” he admitted, urging the national ministries and Nato to provide more equipment for fledgling forces.
He played down yesterday’s attack as an “accident”, saying the explosives had detonated prematurely when the bicycle collided with a car.
Transition comes with US and Afghan officials trying to reach out to the Taliban to broker a peace deal as Nato-led troops begin a gradual withdrawal designed to recall all foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.
Meanwhile, in the volatile south, the focus of a US military “surge” last year to reverse Taliban momentum, Nato troops held a ceremony to transfer Lashkar Gar, the capital of Helmand province, to local control.
The Afghan defence minister and the head of the transition authority Ashraf Ghani led senior officials attending the ceremony at government house in Lashkar Gar, where mostly British troops are based.
Mr Ghani claimed it was a sign of progress that Afghan forces were now able to assume responsibility in what is one of the provinces worst-hit by insurgents and drug traffickers.
“We’re very happy,” added Helmand governor Gulab Mangal. “It’s like an Eid day festival,” he said, referring to a Muslim holiday.
In the neighbouring province of Kandahar – birthplace of the Taliban and the scene of last week’s shock assassination of the Afghan president’s brother – a gunbattle killed three policemen and two insurgents.