Witnesses: Bombs Kill 10 Near Kabul http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-attacks-kabul-casual ties1028oct28.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dnationworld%2Dheadlines By KATHY GANNON Associated Press Writer October 28, 2001, 2:38 AM EST KABUL, Afghanistan -- Bombs smashed three houses in a warren of sun-baked mud homes on the northern edge of this battered capital Sunday, killing at least 10 people, according to neighbors and witnesses. The Associated Press saw the bodies of four children and two men in the neighborhood of Qali Hotair. Neighbors said the dead were eight members of one family and two of another, and that several others were hurt. In one mud house, a father hugged the dead body of his young son, who looked barely 2 years old. He wailed and cried, rocking the body of the son. Nearby were the bodies of three other small children, their sweaters covered in dust. Their mother's pale-blue burqa, or long veil, was draped over them. In another room, a man's body was covered with a white cloth. His neighbors and family were preparing to wash the corpse, in keeping with Islamic tradition. In nearby homes, there were scenes of wild grief. One woman slapped her hands hard against her head until someone stopped her, holding her hands. Others beat their chests and wailed. "My children they cry all the time. It never stops," said neighbor Zarmeen Bibi, speaking from behind her dirty gold burqa, the head-and-body-concealing veil women are required to wear. Within hours, the dead were already being buried. A procession of men in the traditional shalwar kameez -- long tunics and baggy trousers -- carried one body shrouded in a black cloth toward the hillside graveyard. They walked slowly, ignoring those around them. The women, who are not allowed to take part in funeral rites, watched from a distance, weeping. "I have lost all my family. I am finished," said one, heedlessly pushing up her burqa to speak. Others hugged her. "My husband, my son. I have lost all my family. What can I do?" she continued, crying. "They are targeting our houses, oh my God. Why are they doing this?" another women screamed. A neighbor boy, 13-year-old Shafiqullah, said he saw two women, one with her small daughter, taken to the hospital "Then I saw them dig another one, I think it was a daughter, from under the rubble," he said, hugging himself. "I am afraid always when I see the jets. I don't know where it will land." The neighborhood shakes every night from the bombing, said Shafiqullah, who like many people in Afghanistan uses only one name. One man, who said he had children of his own, looked down at the bodies of the dead children laid out side by side. "Believe me -- at night when I hear the planes, I picture my children," he said, his eyes welling. "They sleep in a row and I see something like this ... I worry will something happen to them because of a mistaken bomb." Copyright C 2001, The Associated Press Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
