Afghan president back in Kabul after shrine attack

Afghan President Hamid Karzai cut short a European trip and returned to Kabul on Wednesday to visit the scores of wounded and the bereaved families of those killed in an unprecedented sectarian assault on a Shiite shrine in the capital.    

A suicide bomber slaughtered 56 Shiite worshippers and wounded more than 160 others Tuesday outside a shrine where hundreds had gathered to commemorate the holiday of Ashoura, which honors the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in 680 A.D.     

The blast, coupled with another smaller explosion in a northern city that killed four people in a holiday vehicle procession, marked the first major assault on a Muslim sect in Afghanistan in recent memory.      

Karzai said in a statement shortly after the blast that the attack on Shiites was unprecedented in scope and marked the first time that one had been carried out during a religious event.
    
His office said Wednesday that he had arrived back in Kabul, cutting short a trip to Britain and Germany, and planned to spend the day visiting the wounded in city hospitals.  

AP