Taliban use 12-y-o boy in suicide bombing

KABUL (AP):

On the first day of its promised spring offensive, the Taliban used a 12-year-old boy as a suicide bomber in an attack yesterday that killed four civilians, President Hamid Karzai said, calling the child's recruitment inhumane and unIslamic.

It was one of several attacks across the country that killed seven people, government officials said.

The insurgent movement announced in a statement Saturday that it would step up operations against military bases, convoys and Afghan officials, including members of the peace council working to reconcile with top insurgent leaders. The offensive begins each year after a winter lull in fighting.

"The use of children and youths who don't know the difference between right and wrong in terrorist attacks is inhumane and against all Islamic principles," the president said.

The suicide bomber detonated a vest packed with explosives inside a bazaar in the Barmal district of Paktika province, 160 miles (260 kilometres) south-east of Kabul, on the border with Pakistan. The blast killed four civilians and wounded 12, said Mokhlis Afghan, a spokesman for the provincial governor's office.

Among the dead, and the likely target of the attack, was Sher Nawaz, head of a new district council in the Shakeen area of Paktika province, Afghan said.