Marketplace blast kills 9 as violence rises in Afghanistan's east

[StarfarerBill]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan - In a rising tide of violence in Afghanistan's east, a suicide bomber struck a crowded urban marketplace today, killing at least nine people, and another blast rocked a provincial governor's compound, injuring him and several aides.

In the east's main city of Jalalabad, meanwhile, about 5,000 demonstrators shouted anti-American slogans while protesting the deaths of several children in an explosion a day earlier.

Afghan authorities said the blast was caused by a land mine that went off when a police vehicle ran over it; the NATO force said the cause of the explosion, which also injured nine Western troops, was under investigation.

But in a reflection of increasing anti-U.S. sentiment that accompanies civilian deaths or injuries caused by either side in the conflict, the protesters burned an effigy of President Obama and yelled "Death to America!"

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-afghan-blasts8-2010jan08,0,6326097.story