A crowded market and adjoining mosque in the southeastern Afghan city of Urgun are in tatters today after what is being called the single largest insurgent attack the nation has seen since the 2001 US invasion.
The bombing killed 89 people and wounded 40 others, leveling more than 20 shops. The casualties appear to have been overwhelmingly civilians. The Taliban has denied responsibility and is condemning the attack.
Urgun is in the Paktika Province, which is along the Pakistan border. It was the site of a major battle between the Mujahideen and Soviet occupation forces in late 1983, and was the site of a US Forward Operating Base until 2008.
89 civilians, if confirmed, would be the deadliest insurgent attack by far of the current war, and would be surpassed only by a handful of US airstrikes in number of civilians killed. The Granai airstrike in Farah in 2009 killed an estimated 140 civilians.
The poor buggers were a lot better off under the taliban