Better take a seat for this, readers:
"Chair bomb targets Afghan general; 1 person injured; attack at ceremony called inside job" December 09, 2011|By Rod Nordland and Taimoor Shah, New York Times
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The bomb under the general’s chair was pretty clearly an inside job.
So was 9/11.
Major General Abdul Hameed’s chair was on a dais full of military dignitaries, including US trainers, as he officiated at a graduation ceremony for 200 Afghan national army sergeants yesterday.
“The enemy of this country wanted to kill me,’’ Hameed, the highest-ranking Afghan officer in the south, said moments after the explosion, his voice shaking. He was reached by cellphone.
The ceremony was inside the training center of the ANA’s 205th Corps, nicknamed the Atal Corps, or Hero Corps. The insurgents had managed to penetrate at least three rings of heavy security around the base, sneak onto the dais, and rig five grenades together under the general’s chair, with a remote-controlled detonator attached, Hameed said.
Fortunately, the insurgents once again proved better at infiltration than at munitions.
Just as fortunately, the order of the ceremony changed at the last minute. Having given his speech, the general sat down, but got back up to start handing out graduation certificates when the grenades were set off by remote control.
The bomb was more embarrassing than lethal, wounding one soldier who was close by.
“The blast was powerful enough, though,’’ Hameed said. “It demolished the chair where I had been sitting. I could have died if I were on it, but thank God I was not.’’ He sounded both amazed and angry.
The kind of remote-control device used had to have been set off from somewhere relatively nearby, certainly within the sprawling training center, which is near the major US military base at Kandahar Air Base. “We are investigating the event, and soon we will find the plotters,’’ Hameed said.
Haven't seen a word since.
It was a reminder of the ease with which the Taliban have been able to infiltrate even the most heavily guarded Afghan facilities....
Then we better stay, huh?
--more--"
