Market2025 Herat road crash
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2025 Herat road crash

On 19 August 2025, a passenger bus carrying deported migrants from Iran caught fire after it collided with a motorcycle and a fuel truck and veered off a road in Guzara District, Herat Province, Afghanistan, killing at least 79 people, including 19 children, and injuring two others. It was one of the country's deadliest road crashes of the decade.

Background
Road transport in Afghanistan Traffic accidents are common in Afghanistan, primarily due to poor road conditions after decades of ongoing internal conflict, driver carelessness, and lack of regulation. In addition, the Herat–Islam Qala highway, an extension of the Afghanistan Ring Road where the collision happened, is considered one of the country's most dangerous routes. On 27 August, eight days later, a passenger bus overturned in Arghandi, Kabul, causing 25 fatalities and injuring 27 others. On 1 September, almost two weeks later, an overcrowded car also overturned in Aqcha District, Jowzjan Province, killing eight people and injuring four others. Mass deportation of Afghans from Iran About 1.8 million Afghans have been forcibly expelled from Iran in 2025, with an additional 184,459 deported from Pakistan and over 5,000 from Turkey since the start of the year. Around 10,000 Afghan prisoners, mostly from Pakistan, have also been repatriated. The bus was traveling to the capital Kabul as part of a large-scale operation to remove Afghans from Iran initiated after the Twelve-Day War in June. The crash took place a day after Iranian Minister of Interior Eskandar Momeni announced that 800,000 more people would have to leave the country by next March. A United Nations report issued in July related that some returnees face "serious human rights violations", including "torture, ill-treatment, arbitrary arrest and detention, and threats to personal security." The Taliban, which has ruled the country since seizing power in August 2021, denied the allegations. == Crash ==
Crash
At approximately 8:30p.m. AFT, an overloaded passenger bus with a Mazda truck that was possibly carrying fuel barrels. Seventy-seven people died at the scene, with two others succumbing to their injuries, bringing the death toll to 79. Several bodies were burned beyond recognition. == Aftermath ==
Aftermath
Firefighters and cleanup crews worked in the early hours of the following day to extinguish the flames and clear the charred wreckage of the vehicles. On 20 August, the Taliban said it had arrested the head of the transportation business involved in the collision. ==See also==
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