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Young Afghan Girl In Suicide Bomber Vest Detained By Police

Afghan Police Detain Young Girl In Suicide Vest
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By 

General Assignment Reporter, HuffPost

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Officials say a young girl thought to be the sister of a Taliban commander in southern Afghanistan tried to carry out a bombing attack with a suicide vest.

Police said the girl, whom outlets reported to be between 8 and 10 years old, was in a state of "shock and confusion" and was prodded by her brother to take on the mission, the BBC reports. The plot was allegedly foiled when an Afghan soldier spotted her. Accounts differ as to what happened next: either she could not detonate the jacket, or she was caught before she attempted to set off the device, the outlet wrote.

After interviewing an Afghan border police official, NBC News reports the girl's brother had given her the vest and instructed her to explode it at a police checkpoint in the Khan Nasheen district of Helmand province.

"She was crying" when she was approached by police, the official, Hamidullah Siddiqi, told NBC News.

New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV) identified the girl as "Spozhmay" and reported she was one of the youngest suicide-bombing female recruits the Afghan government had ever recorded.

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Before You Go

Recent Violence In Afghanistan (Warning: Graphic Images)
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Afghan security guard seen at the entrance gate of a foreign logistics company at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul on July 2, 2013. (SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(02 of15)
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A victim's shoe lies on the ground as Afghan police secure the site of a suicide attack in Kabul on June 11, 2013. (SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Afghan officials and bystanders are pictured at the site of a roadside bomb blast in Ghazni province on July 3, 2013. (Rahmatullah Alizad/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Afghan security guard seen at the entrance gate of a foreign logistics company at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul on July 2, 2013. (SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Afghan men carry a wounded man who is a security guard at a foreign logistics company as smoke rises from the entrance gate at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul on July 2, 2013. (SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(06 of15)
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Afghan security guard seen at the entrance gate of a foreign logistics company at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul on July 2, 2013. (SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(07 of15)
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Afghan policemen inspect the site of a suicide car bomb in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan on June17, 2013. (NORR MOHAMMAD/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Afghanistan security personnel walk beside a body at the site of a blast in Kabul on June 18, 2013. (MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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A wounded Afghan man who is a security guard at a foreign logistics company seen at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul on July 2, 2013. (SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Afghan policemen examine a badly damaged bus at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul on June 11, 2013. (SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Injured Afghan survivors receive medical treatment after a suicide attack, at a hospital in Kabul on June 11, 2013. (DAUD YARDOST/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Afghan policemen are seen through the window of a badly damaged bus at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul on June 11, 2013. (SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Afghan security forces stand guard at the site of a suicide attack near Kabul military airport in Kabul on June 10, 2013. (SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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The body of a Taliban fighter lies on the ground in a building that was used for an attack near the Kabul military airport in Kabul on June 10, 2013. (MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Afghan men carry a wounded man who is a security guard at a foreign logistics company as smoke rises from the entrance gate at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul on July 2, 2013. (SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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