Kabul marks day of mourning after deadliest attack in fifteen years
US state department condemns attack
KABUL, July 24, (Agencies): Kabul was plunged into mourning Sunday after its deadliest attack for 15 years killed 80 people and left hundreds maimed, reigniting concern that the Islamic State group was seeking to expand its foothold in Afghanistan.
The US State Department on Saturday condemned an attack at a demonstration in Kabul and offered Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani assistance in investigating the incident.
“The killers responsible for this bloodshed do not represent the future for Afghanistan and will not prevail. Attacks like these only strengthen our resolve to continue our mission in Afghanistan and deepen our support for the people and government there,” said State Department spokesman John Kirby in a statement.
Tempers were frayed a day after the twin bombings that tore through crowds of Shiite Hazara protesters, as many anxiously searched hospitals and morgues, looking among the mutilated bodies for missing relatives.
The attack in the majority Sunni country highlighted the risk of sectarian disharmony in a nation that has largely avoided the bloody strife between Sunnis and Shiites that plagues much of the Muslim world. “I promise you that I will avenge the blood of our loved ones on the perpetrators of this crime, wherever they are,” President Ashraf Ghani said, declaring Sunday a national day of mourning.
The bombings occurred as thousands of Hazara protesters had gathered to demand that a multi-million-dollar power line pass through their electricitystarved province of Bamiyan, one of the most deprived areas of Afghanistan.
The site of the attack, which Ghani renamed as “Martyr’s Square”, remained littered with scorched metal, charred flesh and personal items including shoes, ID cards and protest banners with messages such as “Don’t eliminate us”. Many protesters defiantly camped there overnight, holding candlelight vigils and reciting Koranic verses even though the government announced a 10day ban on public gatherings on security grounds.
Dozens of graves were dug with shovels and excavators at a nearby hilltop cemetary, where coffins were brought in, draped in traditional burial shrouds.
Many who survived with grievous wounds overwhelmed city hospitals, with reports of blood shortages and urgent appeals for donors swirling on social media.
“The lines of Afghan men and women who queued to donate blood for their injured compatriots was a poignant indicator of the Afghan peoples’ resilience and solidarity in the face of terrible violence,” the United Nations said.
IS, which controls territory across Syria and Iraq, claimed the bombings in a statement carried by its affiliated Amaq news agency, calling it an attack on a “gathering of Shiites”.
The devastating attack in the capital represents a major escalation for IS, which so far has largely been confined to the eastern province of Nangarhar where it is notorious for brutality including beheadings.
The Afghan government is currently in the middle of an operation backed by NATO airstrikes against IS in Nangarhar, after Ghani earlier this year claimed that the group had been defeated.
NATO this month said the group’s influence was waning as it steadily lost territory, with fighters largely confined to two or three districts in the province from around nine in January.
“There is no doubt that IS is under intense pressure in Nangarhar, and they are desperate to reassert themselves with attacks such as the one in Kabul,” analyst Ahmad Saeedi told AFP.