Suicide attack in Kabul kills 5
KABUL: Asuicidebomberbelieved to be as young as 12 struck Kabul’s heavily fortified diplomatic quartertodayandkilled at least five people, showing that militants can still hit the heart of the city despite tighter security.
Itwas the first attack targeting the Afghan capital’s “Green Zone” since a massive truck bombrippedthroughtheareaon May31,killingorwoundinghundreds,andpromptingauthorities to strengthen protection.
The Islamic State group claimedresponsibilityfortoday’s attack, which follows a spate of suicideassaultsbyTalibanandIS insurgents on security installations and mosques in recent weeks. A Western security source told AFP the attacker appeared to have been targeting workers leaving an Afghan defence ministry facility inside the heavily protected zone.
Health ministry spokesman Ismail Kawoosi told AFP that at least five people had been killed and 20 wounded, including women.“Thesuicideattackwas carried out by an underage bomber, a boy we think 13 or 15 years old, killing at least four and wounding over a dozen more civilians,” interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish told AFP.
A police spokesman said the attackermayhavebeenasyoung as 12. Defence ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said the bomber“madeitthroughthefirst checkpointbutwasstoppedatthe second checkpoint and detonated”.
“Wedon’tknowthetargetbut ithappenedafewmetresfromthe defence ministry’s foreign relations office. There were no casualties to our personnel,” Waziri said.
The attack is a setback for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani who had promised to beef up the security of the diplomatic zone after the truck bomb detonated outsidetheGermanembassyfive months ago. Ghani ordered an investigation into how the bomberenteredthesecuredarea.