XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: rmanley@tamu.edu   
      
   The war that Bill Clinton started continues.   
      
   KABUL, Afghanistan — As many as 40 people were killed Sunday   
   after a suicide bomber detonated explosives in a crowd gathered   
   for a volleyball match in a village in eastern Afghanistan, a   
   spokesman for the provincial governor said.   
      
   Up to 60 people were wounded in the blast, which occurred in the   
   Yahya Khel district of Paktika Province, said the spokesman,   
   Mokhlis Afghan.   
      
   Another provincial official, Attaullah Fazli, who is the deputy   
   governor, put the number of dead at 50.   
      
   Although most of the victims were civilians, a member of the   
   provincial council in Paktika, Bahawul Khan Katawazai, said that   
   the dead included eight members of the Afghan Local Police, a   
   village-based paramilitary outfit that supports the Afghan   
   government.   
      
   The attack occurred after 5 p.m. in a small village where a   
   local volleyball team was competing against players from a   
   neighboring district, Yosuf Khel. Volleyball is among the most   
   popular forms of entertainment in rural Afghanistan. Where no   
   net is available, a string is often used as a substitute.   
   Villages and district teams often compete against one another a   
   local circuit, attracting sizable crowds of young men.   
      
   Mr. Katawazai, the provincial council member, said the suicide   
   bomber detonated the explosives within the crowd of spectators   
   gathered for the match on Sunday.   
      
   The Taliban had banned sports like boxing and soccer when they   
   group governed Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. In the years   
   since, even as suicide attacks by various insurgent groups,   
   including the Taliban, have become more frequent, the bombers   
   have not typically targeted sporting events.   
      
   There have been exceptions. A few suicide attacks have targeted   
   games of buzkashi, a competition in which men on horseback   
   struggle over a dead goat. One of the deadliest suicide bombings   
   in the country occurred at a dogfighting match near the southern   
   city of Kandahar in 2008. At least 80 people were killed.   
      
   Few details were available Sunday because of the remoteness of   
   the location, and no one immediately claimed responsibility for   
   the attack.   
      
   So far this year, there have been at least five suicide attacks   
   in Paktika Province, which sits on the border with Pakistan,   
   where many of the suicide bombers who carry out attacks in   
   Afghanistan are trained.   
      
   In several suicide attacks this year, the targets in the   
   province appear to have been police officials or tribal leaders.   
   In July, a vehicle packed with explosives detonated in a market   
   in a nearby district in Paktika, killing at least 89 people.   
      
   http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/24/world/asia/afghanistan-suicide-   
   bomber-volleyball-match.html?_r=0   
      
       
      
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