International

Live bombs litter streets after blast

SPIN BOLDAK (Afghanistan) June 29 Live rockets, missiles and mortars littered the streets of the scruffy Afghan border town of Spin Boldak today after an arms dump blew up, killing at least 25 people and leaving a trail of destruction.

Firemen were still struggling to control a blaze at the smouldering weapons depot in Spin Boldak, 90 km southeast of Kandahar, more than 24 hours after the blast, which unleashed a chain of secondary explosions that continued for hours.

``Looking at the ammunition spread all over the town, it seems like it rained rockets,'' one resident said. The cause of the blast has not been established.

Afghan officials said it may have been set off by a rocket attack on the depot by suspected fugitive Al-Qaeda militants or it might have been an accident.

A senior western source said locals also believed a grenade may have been thrown into the arms dump, just across the border from the Pakistani town of Chaman.

Spin Boldak is a main transit point for many of the Afghan refugees returning home from Pakistan to try to rebuild their lives after 23 years of war. It lies on the road to Kandahar, the main city in southern Afghanistan.

Residents and local officials said six more bodies had been found since Friday, lifting the death toll to 25 soldiers and civilians.

At least 53 people were injured and several soldiers on duty at the depot were missing, they said. Most of the wounded were moved to hospital in the city of Kandahar or to Pakistan.

``Four more bodies of soldiers were found in the debris overnight raising the number of killed soldiers to 11,'' an Afghan army officer told Reuters.

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