Toll rises to 57 as survivors tell of Afghan volleyball bombing

Survivors of a horrific suicide attack which killed 57 people at a volleyball game in eastern Afghanistan told Nov. 24 how the blast ripped through a crowd of spectators enjoying the final moments of the match.
     
In the country's deadliest single attack since 2011, the bomber detonated his explosives Sunday as hundreds of young men and boys attended a tournament featuring three local teams in the volatile province of Paktika.
      
Separately, two NATO soldiers were killed in an attack in the east of Afghanistan on Monday morning, the coalition said, giving no further details.
      
Paktika provincial spokesman Mukhlis Afghan said in a statement the death toll from Sunday's blast had risen 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, told AFP 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."       

Najib Danish, deputy spokesman for the interior ministry, said four local police were among the fatalities, but they did not appear to have been specially targeted.
     
The attack underlined 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 Taliban insurgents.
      
"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 was in intensive...