KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomb attack Friday on a convoy of American Humvees near the fortified U.S. Embassy, which took about 16 lives, including two soldiers', has raised fears here about a growing ability of anti-government extremists to strike with apparent impunity, even in the capital.
Among those killed in the deadliest suicide bombing in Kabul since the Taliban fell in 2001 were six municipal street sweepers, who were finishing their morning cleaning of the neighborhood, and two young boys who sold water. As many as 20 children were hit by shattered glass as they played on narrow swaths of grass in front of an apartment complex or ate breakfast, said a doctor who treated them on the scene.
Local police said 14 civilians were killed, but hospitals registered fewer.
The bombing attack was one of four Friday in South Asia that killed civilians and underscored the continuing devastation caused by political unrest. The other blasts killed at least 29 people in India, five in Pakistan and two in Sri Lanka.
Kabul's suicide bombing came a day before the fifth anniversary of the assassination of anti-Taliban leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, and it came just after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had visited Kabul and promised to try to stem the flow of militant fighters from his country into Afghanistan.
For Afghans, the bombing signaled an encroaching threat from extremists, who had been largely confined to Afghanistan's border with Pakistan.
People in the neighborhood and across the capital blamed the incident on the Musharraf government, which they said had allowed the Taliban to take refuge, train and rearm in Pakistan. But they said the United States was responsible too because it has influence with Musharraf yet has failed to compel him to halt support for Taliban guerrillas or prevent their crossing into Afghanistan.
"We really are not happy about our neighbors, and Americans can put more pressure on Pakistan," said former Afghan army Col. Habeeb Chopan, 43, who lives in the nearby apartment complex. "America has chosen the wrong politics in Afghanistan."
For Abdul Majid, 35, who wept silently Friday evening in his hospital bed, the attack was a horror of loss. The municipal supervisor for the area, he is paid $66 a month and was checking on his workers when the bomber hit.
"This place was always safe. There were many soldiers nearby, but now six of my staff were killed; three were injured," he said, struggling to sip some water without moving his shrapnel-lacerated legs and left arm.
