Stampede, Taliban attack kill 47 Afghans
KABUL, Afghanistan — At least 11 women were trampled to death when a stampede broke out Wednesday among thousands of Afghans waiting in a soccer stadium to get visas to leave the country, officials said.
Attaullah Khogyani, the spokesman for the governor of the eastern Nangarhar province, said another 13 people, mostly women, were injured at the stadium, where they were trying to get visas to enter neighboring Pakistan. He said most of those who died were elderly people from across Afghanistan.
Separately, at least 36 Afghan police were killed in an ambush by Taliban militants in northern Afghanistan, officials said.
Rahim Danish, director of the main hospital in northern Takhar province, confirmed receiving 36 bodies and said another eight security-force members were wounded.
An Afghan security official said the police were in a convoy that was ambushed. The official, who was not authorized to brief journalists on the event and so spoke on condition of anonymity, said several police Humvees were set ablaze.
Jawad Hijri, a spokesman for the provincial government, said the deputy police chief was among those killed.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.
Millions of Afghans have fled to Pakistan to escape war and economic hardship, while thousands travel back and forth for work and business, or to receive health care.
Also on Wednesday, the U.S. government watchdog known as SIGAR, which monitors the billions of dollars Washington spends in war-ravaged Afghanistan, released a new report.
It said that as of December, Congress had appropriated nearly $134 billion since 2002 for Afghanistan reconstruction. Of that amount, the watchdog has reviewed approximately $63 billion and concluded that approximately $19 billion, or 30%, was lost to waste, fraud and abuse.