“It looks like Afghans are created by God to be killed by human machines.”


By TAIMOOR SHAH


KANDAHAR, Afghanistan


THIS CITY IS no stranger to bombings. There have been many here over the years of war. But the one on August 25 - the deadliest - may have done more than any other to deepen Kandahar’s sense of isolation and tip its people into despair that someone, anyone, has the power to halt the mayhem that surrounds them.

The bombing produced an entire city block of devastation, gutting shops and homes and reducing many of the structures to mounds of rubble. On August 26, residents searched at the scene and hospitals for missing loved ones, as the death toll rose to 41, with more than 60 wounded.

Abdul Nabi, 45, a shopkeeper, could find only two of his six sons in the wreckage. “I rushed to the hospital and found my sons in very bad condition,” he said. “Three of my sons are still unconscious. One 7-year-old son just opened his eyes now.

“To whom shall I complain?” he asked. His frustration is distressingly common in this city in southern Afghanistan, an area to which President Obama has sent thousands more American troops - bringing the total in the country to about 60,000 - to battle the Taliban insurgency.

Afghans say they feel trapped between sides in an intensifying war as they watch the power of their own government wither. A report on August 31 by General Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American commander in Afghanistan, effectively laid the groundwork for a request for more troops. As part of an overall strategy shift, he is emphasizing protecting civilians over just engaging insurgents.

But on Election Day on August 20, few in Kandahar Province could safely vote, as the Taliban lobbed rocket after rocket at towns. Now the candidates are fighting over the tallies. As of September 1, President Hamid Karzai had 45.9 percent, and his chief rival, Abdullah Abdullah, 33.3 percent. But allegations of fraud grew more widespread.

For the people here, there is no easy way to understand what seem to be increasingly deadly and unfocused attacks coming from all sides.

“We don’t know what the Taliban wants from Afghanistan, and we don’t know why the coalition forces are here, but things are getting worse day by day,” said Niamatullah, 30, a high school teacher, who like many Afghans uses only one name. “Sometimes rockets are fired and sometimes it is suicide bombers and sometimes car bombs, and the victims are civilians. And even sometimes bombing by coalition forces. It looks like Afghans are created by God to be killed by human machines. We don’t feel safe anywhere, even at home.”

Home is where the blast found many of its victims on August 25, as they broke their daytime fasting during Ramadan, timing that made the attack all the more demoralizing.

The bomb exploded with such force that it was felt kilometers away outside the city. Not only was the scale unusual, but also the fact that the attack appeared to be aimed not at the police or coalition forces but at civilians.

“Everybody was busy breaking their fast; there were lots of people sitting on the floor at the front of their shops, and some people were inside their shops,” said Gul Muhammad, 45, a vegetable seller. “It was a very scary moment for me. I thought I lost my sons, but they are alive. Anything can happen to ordinary Afghans. We are not safe. We are without value. We have no right to life.”

On August 26 the Taliban denied responsibility for the bombing, though the feeling among many here was that almost anyone would disavow it, given the public revulsion. Few doubted it was the work of the Taliban.

Crowds gathered at the city hospital, and in the city center dazed residents tried to sweep up the glass and debris to restore some order.

A shopkeeper, Ahmadullah, 40, lamented: “These people were the poorest in Afghanistan. All were laborers and workers.” He said he was in a mosque, praying, when the bomb went off. It killed two of his nephews, he said.

Not long afterward, he pointed to a 6-year-old boy who was lying unconscious with an abdominal injury. “His father was killed - who will take care of him, his mother and sister?” he said. “This is the life of all Afghans.”

Indeed, Afghanistan is a country that has lived with three decades of wars, fought in numbing sequence. But even so, the scale of the attack August 25 stunned many here.

Niamatullah, the schoolteacher, said, “I am telling all enemies of Afghanistan, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, to gather one day and use all power against the Afghan people and kill us in one go. That would be kind to all Afghans - they are killing us every day, which is painful - kill us in one go.”


Sharon Otterman contributed reporting from New York, and Mark McDonald from Hong Kong.


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An Afghan man mourns in the ruins of a bomb explosion that killed 41 people in Kandahar on August 25.


Afghans gathered outside damaged shops a day after the August 25 bombing in Kandahar.