Two highway crashes in southeastern Afghanistan kill 50 people and injure 76

Two highway crashes in southeastern Afghanistan have killed a combined total of 50 people and injured 76, a government spokesman said Thursday.

One was a collision between a passenger bus and an oil tanker on the Kabul-Kandahar highway late Wednesday, said Hafiz Omar, a spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province.

The other was in a different area of the same highway, which connects the Afghan capital with the south.

“The injured have been taken to hospitals in Ghazni and authorities are in the process of handing over the bodies to families,” said Omar. Patients in a more serious condition were transferred to Kabul. Women and children are among the casualties, he added.

Crash survivor Abdullah Khan, who was being treated in a Ghazni hospital, said he didn't know how many people had either died or were injured.

“I got out from the bus myself and heard the sound of moaning. There was blood everywhere. Some people had head injuries and others had hurt their legs.”

Traffic accidents are common in Afghanistan, mainly due to poor road conditions and driver carelessness.

Afghan Taliban fighters stand near the body of a victim of a bus accident, at a hospital in Ghazni province, southeastern Afghanistan, on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Gulabuddin Amiri)

An Afghan man injured in a bus accident lies on a hospital bed in Ghazni province, southeastern Afghanistan, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Gulabuddin Amiri)

Afghan men who were injured in a bus accident rest in a hospital in Ghazni province, southeastern Afghanistan, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Gulabuddin Amiri)

People clear debris from damaged buses following an accident in Ghazni province, southeastern Afghanistan, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Gulabuddin Amiri)

People remove a damaged bus after an accident in Ghazni province, southeastern Afghanistan, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Gulabuddin Amiri)

People remove damaged buses after an accident in Ghazni province, southeastern Afghanistan, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Gulabuddin Amiri)

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — U.S. weapons manufacturers could work with Vietnamese counterparts to help build up Vietnam's armed forces, the U.S. ambassador to the southeast Asian country said on Thursday.

“Our goal is to ensure that Vietnam has what it needs to defend its interests at sea, in the air, on the ground and in cyberspace,” U.S. Ambassador Mark Knapper said at an international arms expo in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.

Vietnam is hosting the expo that brings together 250 exhibitors including geopolitical rivals including the U.S., China, Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Iran. The expo, held at Hanoi's Gia Lam airport, continues through Sunday.

U.S. exhibitors include Boeing and Textron Aviation. China is present with Norinco and Gaodu International Trade. Iran’s defense ministry pavilion isn't far from booths set up by Israeli companies Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries. A number of Russian firms are also in attendance along with Ukraine’s Motor Sich.

Vietnam has been trying to increase its domestic arms manufacturing while reducing its reliance on Russia for weapon imports.

In 2022, Russia made up around 60% of all of Vietnam's military purchases, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. But Vietnam's longstanding efforts to diversify its imports have been accelerated by the war in Ukraine. It has also been trying to boost its own capacity to make arms and displayed indigenously-made military equipment at the expo.

A key driver for Vietnam is the escalating tensions in the South China Sea, a key trade and security route. It a flashpoint in Asia and a fault line in the U.S.-China regional rivalry. Vietnam has been critical of China’s increasingly hostile actions in the disputed waters. Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries have overlapping claims in the busy sea passage.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh called the event “message of peace, cooperation and development." He was later given a tour of a military plane made by U.S. firm Lockheed Martin.

FILE - A man walks past a Lockheed Martin logo as he walks through a section of the company's chalet bridging a road at Farnborough International Airshow in Farnborough, southern England, July 19, 2006. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 25, 2011, file photo, is the Boeing Company logo on the property in El Segundo, Calif. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)