Afghan Diary
Susan Ormiston
When the bomb goes off just down the road
Last Updated: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 | 5:10 PM ET
By Susan Ormiston CBC News
It happens so randomly. That's the terrifying part.
Kabul's second suicide bombing in four days burst on us as suddenly as the first, last Saturday. We heard it this time, too.
At 12:45 p.m., we were travelling along Jalalabad Rd. to the heavily fortified Independent Election Commission (IEC) offices. We were late for an interview.
Fifteen minutes later, at the IEC, we heard the blast. A muffled boom, not as big as last Saturday's but significant. "Car bomb," said our security escort.
We get in the car and head back down that same Jalalabad Road, maybe 500 metres.
British soldiers and Afghan police remove a destroyed vehicle following a suicide car bomb attack on the Jalalabad Rd. outside Kabul on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009. (Kevin Frayer/Associated Press) There is now a blockade at an intersection that we had passed through not even a half hour earlier. It was a long hoof by foot to get past one blockade, then the next.
It is now about 1:30 p.m. For the next half hour, we dicker with the Afghan National Army guards.
We are one of the first news crews to arrive and they aren't happy we're here. They won't let us close to the scene.
After some time, they relax and we advance until we're ordered back. At one point a private security guard gets uncomfortably close to our news team.
He takes out his pistol and waves it in our faces. "Get back," he yells.
Angry men with guns
Later, an ANA guard shoos us back as well. When we protest that his supervisor allowed us to advance, he whips out his AK47, cocks it and points. It's persuasive.
The local cameraman with us isn't as easily threatened. Until the guard starts shoving him, gun still at the ready. The rest of us head for a large cement wall for cover. Angry men with guns are unpredictable.
By 3:00 p.m., information is leaking out even to our distanced position: It was a suicide bomber who rammed a British supply convoy.
Along the roadside were small, modest shops and their poor shopkeepers are dead or injured. Ambulances come and go; then armoured vehicles, as they set up a secure cordon.
A serious threat is that there could be a secondary bomb or bomber. Once people have gathered, the insurgents sometimes strike again.
We visit some of the shops across the highway. Glass windows are shattered and shards lie in the dust on the road.
Stay away
A man with dried blood on his face approaches. He's a taxi driver, he tells us. He was behind the convoy when the bomber blew up. His taxi is totalled.
"Is he angry?" I ask my translator. "No," the translator shrugs, "this is Afghanistan."
"Will it affect his vote?" I want to know. Then he is angry. "I'm not even registered to vote. Who will I vote for? For what?"
Terrorism and voter participation are linked. The insurgents want voters to stay away — to make a mockery of these elections.
They're targeting foreign forces, regularly, and not just in the South anymore.
Tragically they're killing many, many more Afghans.
Today, one Western soldier was killed while nine Afghans died and 53 were injured.
At 3:15, we were allowed to cross the road and see the damage for ourselves.
The wreckage of stores, cars and buildings looks disturbingly similar every time. The human wreckage is gone, for now. The randomness is hard to deal with.
