Massive Kabul truck bomb kills 80, wounds hundreds
Taliban condemns bombing, denies responsibility
a seven-meter deep crater at the scene.
Rescue workers were digging bodies from the rubble hours after the explosion. Dozens of damaged cars choked the roads as wounded survivors and panicked schoolgirls sought safety. Men and women struggled to get through security checkpoints to search for loved ones.
It was not immediately clear what the target was. But the attack underscores spiralling insecurity in Afghanistan, where a military beset by soaring casualties and desertions is struggling to beat back insurgents. Over a third of the country is outside government control.
“Unfortunately the toll has reached 80 martyred (killed) and over 300 wounded, including many women and children,” said Health Ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh, adding the figures would continue to climb as more bodies are pulled from the debris.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, slammed by President Ashraf Ghani as a “war crime.” 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 Daesh 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.
NATO said the bomb was a VBIED, or vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, which detonated near Kabul’s Zanbaq Square at 8:22 a.m.
“The vigilance and courage of Afghan security forces prevented the VBIED from gaining entry to the Green Zone, but the explosion caused civilian casualties,” the alliance’s Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan said in a statement.
The explosion damaged a number of embassies in the area, which houses diplomatic and government buildings and is a maze of concrete blast walls, vehicle barriers and armed security guards.
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 detonated “in the immediate vicinity” of the German Embassy.
The BBC said its Afghan driver Mohammed Nazir was killed and four of their journalists wounded. Local TV channel Tolo TV also tweeted that its staff member Aziz Navin was killed.