Truck bomb kills 90 in Kabul, over 400 hurt
Blast caused by 1,500kg explosives Afghans blame ISI
Kabul, May 31: At least 90 people were killed and more than 400 wounded Wednesday when a massive truck bomb ripped through Kabul’s diplomatic quarter at peak rush hour, bringing carnage to the streets of the Afghan capital and blowing out windows several miles away.
The blast damaged the embassies of India, Bulgaria, France, Japan, Turkey and the UAE. It also destroyed or damaged more than 50 vehicles and shattered windows of buildings located hundreds of metres away.
The sound of the bomb, which went off near Kabul’s busy Zanbaq Square, reverberated across the Afghan capital, with residents comparing it to an earthquake. Most victims appear to be civilians.
President Ashraf Ghani slammed the attack as a “war crime”.
The National Directorate of Security said on Wednesday evening the attack, just days into the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, was planned by the Haqqani Network in Pakistan with the “direct help” of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, according to Afghan media.
No group has so far claimed the powerful blast, which a Western diplomatic source said was caused by 1,500 kilogrammes of explosives packed inside a water tanker.
It was not immediately clear what the target was. But the attack suggests a major security failure and
underscores spiralling insecurity in Afghanistan, where the Nato-backed military, beset by soaring casualties and desertions, is struggling to beat back insurgents.
Over a third of Afghanistan is outside government control.
The attack took place at the peak of Kabul’s rush hour, when roads were packed with commuters.
Bodies littered the scene and a huge cloud of smoke rose from the highly-fortified area which houses foreign embassies, after the blast tore a massive crater in the ground.
Rescue workers were digging bodies from the rubble hours after the explosion as anguished residents struggled to get through security cordons to search for missing relatives.
Dozens of damaged cars choked the roads as wounded survivors and panicked schoolgirls sought safety.
The Taliban — currently in the midst of their annual “spring offensive” — tweeted that they were not involved and “strongly condemn” the blast.
The insurgent group rarely claims responsibility for attacks that kill large numbers of civilians.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for several recent bombings in the Afghan capital, including a powerful blast targeting a Nato convoy that killed eight people earlier this month.
“The vigilance and courage of Afghan security forces prevented the VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device) from gaining entry to the Green Zone, but the explosion caused civilian casualties,” Nato said in a statement.
The BBC said its Afghan driver Mohammed Nazir was killed and four of their journalists wounded.
Local television channel Tolo TV also tweeted that a staff member Aziz Navin was killed.
German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel said the “despicable” attack killed an Afghan guard from the German embassy, and added that some employees had been injured, though he did not give further details.
He said the bomb had gone off “in the immediate vicinity” of the German embassy.
Unisted States ambassador to Afghanistan Hugo Llorens issued a scathing statement condemning the “complete disregard for human life”, saying those behind the attack deserved our “utter scorn”.
Amnesty International said the attack underscores the fact that the conflict in Afghanistan is “dangerously widening in a way that should alarm the international community”.
Germany was forced to postpone a scheduled deportation flight of rejected Afghan asylum-seekers in the wake of the attack.
The European nation has drawn criticism for sending back Afghans to an increasingly dangerous country.
Wednesday’s blast was the latest in a string of attacks in Kabul.
The province surrounding the capital had the highest number of casualties in the country in the first three months of 2017 due to multiple attacks in the city, with civilians bearing the brunt of the violence.