Northern Afghanistan going the way of Southern Afghanistan

Just the fact that so many people were killed and wounded is bad enough, but something perhaps just as disturbing is where this happened. New Baghlan is near the town of Pul-i-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province - in the north of Afghanistan.

A suicide bomber threw himself at a delegation of lawmakers visiting a town in northern Afghanistan, killing as many as 26 people, including a leading opposition figure, and wounding scores more, many of them school children forming a welcome parade, local and regional Afghan officials said. Such an attack, in the relatively peaceful town of New Baghlan, near Pul-i-Khumri, in northern Afghanistan, is unusual and appears to represent another effort by the Taliban to extend its reach to the north of the country. There was an immediate denial of responsibility from a Taliban spokesman, but he has often been unreliable in the past, and no other group carries out suicide attacks in the country.

The former minister of commerce, Sayed Mustafa Kazemi, was among the dead, along with four other members of Parliament. One female Parliament member, Shukria Isakhel, and an influential local commander, Amir Gul, were among the wounded, Afghan National Television reported in its evening news.

The Taliban are denying responsibility for the attack.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman who has often made erroneous claims in the past, denied the Taliban was responsible. “The Taliban has no involvement or no hands in the blast that killed civilians in Baghlan Province,” he said. “We, the movement of the Taliban, condemn the action and whoever carried it out. It took the lives of ordinary people mostly.”

There is no particular reason to believe that claim, however, if it hasn't been made obvious before, there are numerous insurgent groups in Afghanistan. The Talibs constitute only one of them.

In any case, Pul-i-Khumri and New Baghlan are secured by Hungarian troops. The northern region of Afghanistan is under German command. It looks like asking them to commit troops to the south may well become moot if this attack is any indication of things to come.