Rocket attack on Afghan weapons dump kills 19 and injures dozens

A series of massive explosions at an ammunition dump in an Afghan town which killed 19 people yesterday was triggered by a rocket attack, a local warlord claimed.

The blasts at Spinboldak, a town near the Pakistani border and scene of the Taliban's first military victory, also injured dozens of civilians and wrecked 22 buildings.

The injured, many of whom were not expected to survive, were taken to Kandahar in the south, and Chaman, three miles across the Pakistani border.

The casualties came as Donald Rumsfeld, the American defence secretary, warned that remnants of Taliban and al-Qa'ida have received large shipments of sophisticated military equipment, and were preparing fresh offensives against American and British troops.

Commander Fazaludin Agha, allied to the Kabul government of Hamid Karzai, said it was not known who had fired the rockets which led to the first explosion at Spinboldak.

Among those killed were Afghan soldiers guarding the depot as well as local men, women and children. No American or foreign coalition troops were among the casualties. "A mortar fell on my house," said Abdul Ghaffar, a teenage soldier who stood guard outside the compound. "It killed my mother and my brother."

The explosions destroyed a warehouse storing aid and UN World Food Programme tents containing supplies. Several of the injured were inside a mosque which collapsed.

Spinboldak is the principal entry point for Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan's southern Baluchistan province, and relief workers said the explosions could delay the repatriation of an estimated 32,000 Afghans sheltering in five camps around the town.