InfoAnda - Afghans mark New Year amid bloodshed

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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail Yahoo! Search Search: Sign InNew User? Sign Up News Home - Help Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Australia China India Indonesia Japan Malaysia Philippines Thailand Vietnam Search Search: Afghans mark New Year amid bloodshed AFP - Sunday, March 22 MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (AFP) - - Tens of thousands of people crammed around a shrine in northern Afghanistan on Saturday to usher in the New Year with prayers for peace, as a Taliban-led insurgency rages on. ADVERTISEMENT The celebrations in the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif came as a series of bomb blasts around the country killed 11 people and NATO said five of its soldiers were among nearly 60 people killed on Friday. In tight security provided by 2,500 men, the foreign ministers of Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan -- which all use the solar calendar -- headed a list of VIPs in Mazar-i-Sharif for the country's main New Year event. In a message read out at the Shrine of Hazrat Ali, President Hamid Karzai said: "I wish that the year 1388 be the year of peace, happiness and prosperity for all Afghans." A large pole adorned with colourful flags was then hoisted -- a key moment broadcast live on television during which some believe prayers can be answered and miracles happen. Many of the estimated 10,000 people who packed their shrine for the event told AFP they would pray for peace. Others like Ahmad Shah asked for good health or prosperity. "I wished that my business would improve. I believe in Ali's miracles," he said. Thousands were up before sunrise to find a spot inside the shrine compound, while others watched the proceedings from rooftops or trees outside. Men fought their way towards the pole to try to rub cloth onto it for good luck and miracles. Afghans say Hazrat Ali, the fourth caliph of Islam, was buried in Mazar-i-Sharif although it is more widely held that his remains are in the Iraqi city of Najaf. Afghanistan's austere Taliban regime tried to curtail celebrations for New Year, or Naw Ruz, but they have been revived since the 2001 ouster of the hardliners. Thousands of people attended a similar flagpole-raising ceremony in the capital Kabul at a famous shrine with similar gatherings held across the country. A roadside bomb blew up at one of the gatherings where hundreds of men had gathered at a shrine on the outskirts of the eastern city of Khost. Two men were killed and four wounded, police said. In the nearby province of Nangarhar meanwhile, a suicide bomber who intended to entre the bustling city of Jalalabad instead blew up a car bomb at a police checkpost set up for the New Year festivities, officials said. A policeman and five civilians were killed, Karzai said in a statement to condemn the attack, which was claimed by the Taliban. "Enemies of Afghanistan, by conducting this terrorist action on a day that Afghans celebrate New Year in peace, showed that they don't have any aim except to destroy Afghanistan," he said. Two separate roadside bombings in the southern province of Kandahar killed three more Afghan civilians. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force announced meanwhile that five of its soldiers and an Afghan interpreter died in attacks in southern Afghanistan on Friday. A wave of other attacks and clashes on Friday killed at least 19 Afghan security forces and more than 30 militants, according to officials. Last year was the deadliest of the insurgency since the Taliban were removed in a US-led invasion, with more than 2,000 civilians killed, most of them in militant attacks, according to the United Nations. Karzai has pushed various strategies to deal with the spiralling violence, including an international focus against militant sanctuaries in Pakistan and talks with those Taliban who agree to renounce violence and accept the constitution. 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