Explosions rock funeral in Kabul

KABUL— Three explosions rocked the funeral service of a victim of antigovernment protests in Kabul on Saturday, killing at least seven people and injuring dozens after a tense and bloody week in the Afghan capital.

The blasts followed a truck explosion Wednesday that killed nearly 100 people and wounded almost 500 near the presidential palace and foreign embassies.

The number of casualties Saturday was not immediately clear, but Wahidullah Majroh, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry, said seven bodies had been recovered and 119 people had been taken to hospitals with injuries. Local news media reported that at least12 people had been killed, and the Emergency Hospital, one of Kabul’s main trauma centres, put the number of dead at 19.

Among the dead was a former deputy attorney general, Halim Samadi, and a well-known northern preacher, Mawlawi Jalal. The speaker of the Afghan Senate, Fazl Hadi Muslimyar, and several senior members of Jamiat-e-Islami, one of the country’s prominent political parties, were among the wounded.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings. A spokesperson for the Taliban denied it was behind the bombings. But Salahuddin Rabbani, the foreign minister, who was attending the funeral service but was not injured, said, “Barbaric terrorists have turned a funeral into a slaughterhouse.”

In addition to Rabbani, Abdullah Abdullah, the government’s chief executive and President Ashraf Ghani’s coalition partner, was among other senior government officials at the funeral. Abdullah was not injured.

More than 1,000 people had gathered for the final prayer for Salem Izidyar, the son of the deputy speaker of the Senate, who was killed Friday during protests in Kabul calling for the resignation of the government.