USA TODAY International Edition

AFGHAN OFFENSIVE PLANNED AFTER KABUL BOMBING

Peaceful rally over access to electricit­y attacked by multiple suicide bombers

- Bart Jansen and Doug Stanglin

Afghanista­n plans for a military offensive in coordinati­on with U. S. troops against the Islamic State have become more urgent as the country marked Sunday a national day of mourning for 80 people killed and 230 injured in Kabul's worst attack in 15 years.

Planning for the military offensive later this month became more urgent as the Islamic State’s online news agency Aamaq claimed responsibi­lity for the suicide bombing Saturday.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani recently announced a major assault in the Nangarhar province along the country’s eastern border with Pakistan.

The effort nicknamed Shafaq, or “dawn” in Pashto, would be the largest since most internatio­nal combat troops withdrew in 2014. But President Obama issued a directive in June allowing the U. S. military to work with Afghan forces on non- combat missions.

About 9,800 U. S. troops are in Afghanista­n. Obama pledged this month to keep at least 8,400 troops in the country through 2017, which delayed plans to drop to 5,500 by the end of this year.

U. S. airstrikes are likely to become more frequent as the strategy becomes more aggressive than simply defending U. S. or NATO positions under Gen. John Nicholson, who heads those forces.

The Nangarhar province is strategic because it produces agricultur­al goods and provides a thoroughfa­re for exports to Pakistan and elsewhere.

“It is like a second capital," Afghan Army Gen. Shir Mohammad Karimi said. "If Nangarhar falls, Kabul will become a battlegrou­nd every day.”

The military situation is deteriorat­ing. While official casualty totals aren't released, military officials said 5,000 Afghan troops were killed in 2014, more than 6,000 were killed last year and the pace is running 20% higher this year.

Confusion surrounded Saturday’s attack, but witnesses said explosives in an ice- cream cart added to what the suicide bombers carried. One bomber blew himself up, but police shot the other before he detonated, officials said Saturday.

The blast came during a march by thousands of ethnic Hazaras who demanded the rerouting of a power line through the impoverish­ed province of Bamiyan. Most Hazaras are Shiite Muslims, while most Afghans are Sunni. It was the first Islamic State attack on Kabul and the worst since a Taliban insurgency began 15 years ago.

Daud Naji, a member of the Englighten­ment Movement that organized the march, said the group was told of a “heightened risk” of attack.

The privately owned Afghan TOLOnews site quoted an unidentifi­ed high- ranking Afghan security official as saying security forces killed a third bomber before another explosive was detonated.

A Taliban spokesman strongly denied any involvemen­t from his group in the attack, calling it an “act of making enmity among Afghan ethnicitie­s,” according to Ehsanullah Amiri, a Wall Street

Journal reporter writing on Twitter. .

 ?? SHAH MARAI, AFP/ GETTY IMAGES ?? Afghan mourners carry the coffin of one of the 80 people killed in a twin suicide attack in Kabul.
SHAH MARAI, AFP/ GETTY IMAGES Afghan mourners carry the coffin of one of the 80 people killed in a twin suicide attack in Kabul.

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