Taliban bomb kills 24 in Kabul
ATTACKS RISE: BUS CARRYING GOVERNMENT STAFF HIT
Several new districts fell to the militants over the weekend.
Kabul
At least 24 people were killed and 42 wounded when a Taliban car bomb struck a bus carrying government employees in western Kabul yesterday, officials said, the latest attack to strike the Afghan capital.
“The car bomb hit a bus carrying employees of the ministry of mines during rush hour,” interior ministry spokesperson Najib Danish said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast that hit a busy neighbourhood of the Afghan capital just before 7am.
The bombing comes as the resurgent militant group has stepped up attacks across the country in recent days, with several new districts falling to the Taliban over the weekend.
The blast hit an area of the capital that is home to many Shi’ite Hazaras, a persecuted ethnic minority who have been targeted many times in the past.
It is also near the home of prominent politician and former warlord Mohammad Mohaqeq. Omid Maisom Mohaqiq, a spokesperson for the politician, said the bomb had detonated near the first checkpoint approaching the house, “killing and wounding some civilians”.
An AFP photographer at the scene saw multiple bodies and wounded people in the street, surrounded by shattered glass as security forces cordoned off the area.
The charred remains of the bus stood in the middle of the road and a black column of smoke from the explosion hung in the air.
An army truck and forklifts were removing the carcass of the bus as ambulances, taxis and private cars ferried the injured to hospitals, an AFP photographer said.
Kabul’s Hazara community were due yesterday to mark the one-year anniversary of an attack in the heart of the capital that killed 84 and wounded more than 300 people, mostly members of the ethnic minority. That attack was the first in Afghanistan claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, which has since carried out multiple attacks targeting the Shi’ite minority.
Kabul is regularly rocked by suicide bombs and attacks. A recent UN report showed that attacks on the capital accounted for nearly one-fifth of all civilian Afghan casualties in the first half of 2017.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, which has been documenting civilian casualties since 2009, said in its recent report that 1 662 civilians were killed and more than 3 500 injured in the first six months of the year. Many died in a single devastating attack in Kabul in late May when a truck bomb exploded killing more than 150 people and injuring hundreds.
The UN put the civilian death toll at 92, saying it was the deadliest incident since 2001. Nato’s combat mission in Afghanistan ended three years ago, handing sole responsibility to the country’s security forces, which have also suffered spiralling casualties as they try to beat back the resurgent Taliban and IS. –