Taliban Hide Explosives Inside A 4-Month-Old Child’s Clothes For An Attack Planned On An Afghan City

Taliban fighters reportedly hid explosives inside the clothes of a 4-month-old-child as part of their scheme to attack the Afghan city of Kunduz. Police stopped the perpetrators while they were making their way to Kunduz to carry out the attack. Five people, including one woman, were arrested while trying the enter the city located in northern Afghanistan. The explosives had reportedly been carefully concealed under the 4-month-old’s clothes, Daily Mail reports.

The deputy chief of the Independent Human Rights Commission of Afghanistan, Sowita Abulrahizai, denounced the incident, saying that the act was not only against the laws of the country but also against that of the Islamic shari’a.

“Using children in armed conflicts is the most brutal and vicious act in the society, because such acts are categorically banned by the Islamic shari’a and enforced laws of the country.”

But of course, children have been greatly affected by the armed conflict in Afghanistan. A compound of the Save the Children aid group in Jalalabad was attacked recently. And on Friday, at least six children were killed in the city of Ghazni during fighting. Government officials have blamed their deaths on the Taliban, whereas the Taliban has claimed that they died during an air strike.

Taliban hide explosives in four-month-old child's clothes in plot to attack Afghan city https://t.co/7slBB3X6F1

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) January 27, 2018

The provincial officials have blamed the Taliban, saying that a mortar attack by the terrorist organization struck the area where the children were playing, killing six and wounding two. However, the locals in the region provided a different account, claiming that the children died during an air strike by the Afghan security forces. The Afghan security forces have, in fact, been conducting an increasing number of air-based attacks since their air force has grown in the past year.

The attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul was greatly highlighted by the media, but such attacks have become a recurring sight for the Afghan people. These attacks highlight the daily toll Afghan civilians have been dealing with. Only earlier today, an explosion in the capital Kabul was reported by Reuters. The explosion is said to have taken place in a location containing foreign embassies and government buildings.

According to a UN report, a total of 2,640 civilians were killed and 5,379 were wounded between the months of January and September in 2017. More than a third of those killed were killed in ground engagements. Also among the dead, 689 were children. Among the wounded, 1,791 were children.