57 killed in suicide attack on Kabul civilians
Children, women among the dead as bomber strikes crowd gathered to collect voter ID cards
The large explosion echoed across the city, shattering windows miles away from the attack site and damaging several nearby vehicles. Police blocked all roads to the blast site, with only ambulances allowed in.
Asuicide bomber struck a voter registration centre in the Afghan capital yesterday, killing at least 57 people in an attack claimed by the Daesh terror group.
Public Health Ministry spokesman Wahid Majro said another 119 people were wounded in the attack, updating an earlier toll. Gen. Daud Amin, the Kabul police chief, said the suicide bomber targeted civilians who had gathered to receive national identification cards.
The large explosion echoed across the city, shattering windows miles away from the attack site and damaging several nearby vehicles. Police blocked all roads to the blast site, with only ambulances allowed in. Local TV stations broadcast live footage of hundreds of distraught people gathered at nearby hospitals seeking word about loved ones.
Majro said there were five small children and 21 women among the dead. More than a dozen children and nearly 50 women were wounded, he said.
Daesh has claimed responsibility in a statement carried by its Aamaq news agency. Afghanistan will hold parliamentary elections in October.
UAE condemns blast
The UAE has condemned the terror blast. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in a statement said the UAE denounces such a criminal, cowardly act of terror that is aimed at destabilising Afghanistan.
This aggression contravenes all humanitarian laws and principles, said the ministry, affirming the UAE’s principled stance rejecting all forms of terrorism and violence.
Asuicide attack on a voter registration centre in Kabul yesterday killed at least 57 people and wounded 119 others, the health ministry said.
The assaults underscore growing concerns about security in the lead-up to legislative elections scheduled for October 20, which are seen as a testrun for next year’s presidential election.
Officials said a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a voter registration centre in the Afghan capital Kabul yesterday, killing several people and wounding dozens as they waited to receive identity cards, officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on a project of key importance to the credibility of President Ashraf Gani’s Western-backed government, which has pledged to hold parliamentary elections this year.
However, the Taliban’s main spokesman issued a statement on Twitter denying involvement.
Interior Ministry spokesman Najeeb Danesh said a bomber on foot approached the centre where officials had been issuing identity cards as part of a process of registering voters for the election scheduled for October.
The explosion destroyed cars and shattered windows in nearby buildings, leaving rubble strewn across the street.
“There were women, children. Everyone had come to get their identity cards,” said Bashir Ahmad who had been nearby when the attack took place, after weeks of relative calm in the capital.
The blast took place in Dasht-e-Barchi, an area of western Kabul inhabited by many members of the mainly Shiite Hazara minority, which has been repeatedly hit by attacks claimed by Daesh.
Voter registration centres have been set up across Afghanistan ahead of long-delayed parliamentary and district council elections due to be held in October and there have been serious concerns that militants might attack them.
Gani under pressure
President Gani has been under heavy pressure from his international partners to ensure the elections are held this year, ahead of a presidential election due in 2019 although there has been widespread scepticism that they will take place.
Unless the process of registering millions of voters, many of whom do not have national identity cards, can be completed before winter sets, the vote would almost certainly have to be postponed until next year.