Gardez (Afghanistan): A suicide bomber killed 50 people at a volleyball match in Afghanistan on Sunday, a provincial official said, as foreign troops withdraw from the country after more than a decade of fighting. More than 50 people were wounded in the attack in Yahya Khel district, where residents had gathered to watch a tournament. Most of the casualties were civilians.
Casualties were high because the crowd was so dense, since many people had come from nearby districts to cheer on their team. The Taliban and other jihadist militants have unleashed waves of suicide attacks and assassinations in Afghanistan this year, as foreign forces pull out after 13 years of war.
The province has an active Afghan Taliban insurgent presence and lies along the porous border with Pakistan's lawless North Waziristan region, used as a base by both the Haqqani militant network and the Pakistani branch of the Taliban.
