Afghan men gather around the bodies of victims of Sunday’s suicide attack at a volleyball match in Yahya Khail district, Paktika province, on Monday.

KABUL: Survivors of a horrific suicide attack which killed 57 people at a volleyball game in Afghanistan told Monday how a bomb packed with ball bearings ripped through spectators enjoying the final moments of the match.

In the country’s deadliest single attack since 2011, the bomber detonated his explosives as hundreds of young men and boys attended a tournament on Sunday featuring three local teams in the volatile eastern province of Paktika.

Separately, two NATO soldiers were killed in an attack in the east on Monday morning, the coalition said.

Paktika provincial spokesman Mukhlis Afghan said the death toll from Sunday’s blast rose to 57 after 15 people died of their injuries overnight.

“The game was about to end when we heard a big bang,” Salaam Khan, 19, said at a military hospital in Kabul where he was flown for treatment to his injured chest and right leg.

“I was shouting for help. Just beside me was a dead army officer,” he said. “There were local police and commanders watching the game. I saw some killed and wounded.”

The attack underlines the challenges facing President Ashraf Ghani, who came to power in September, as US-led NATO troops wind down operations and Afghan security forces take over full responsibility for fighting the Taleban and other insurgents.

Afghanistan’s intelligence agency named the Haqqani network, a hard-line militant group aligned with the Taleban, as being behind for the blast.

The Haqqani network, which was designated a terrorist organization by the US in 2012, has been blamed for large-scale attacks on government and NATO targets across Afghanistan as well as for many kidnappings and murders.

“I was watching the game, sitting on the ground with my brother, when the blast happened,” said Mohammad Rasoul, 11, who was wounded in the chest and whose brother is in intensive care.

“People were covered in blood all around me. There were many friends of mine among them.”

Many of the wounded are children and young men, and were wrapped in bloody bandages.

Doctor Seyawash, head of health services at the hospital in Kabul, told reporters that about 12 victims were in a critical condition, explaining that the injuries were mostly sustained from ball bearings packed in the bomb. The blast, in the Yahya Khail district of Paktika, came early on Sunday evening as crowds peaked at the volleyball, a popular sport in Afghanistan.

“I arrived after the bombing, it was an emergency situation. People were rushing the dead and wounded into cars,” said Ghulam Mohammad, 60, whose injured grandson cradled a teddy bear in hospital.

 
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