9 killed in suicide attack at checkpoint in Kabul
kabul — A suicide bomber targeting Afghanistan’s minority Hazaras blew himself up at a police checkpoint in western Kabul on Friday, killing nine people and wounding 18, officials said.
According to Basir Mujahid, spokesman for the Kabul police chief, the bomber was on foot and was trying to strike a gathering of Hazaras who were commemorating the 1995 death of their leader, Abdul Ali Mazari, killed at the hands of the Taleban.
The bomber came as close to the gathering as he could and detonated his explosives at the checkpoint outside, the spokesman said. One policeman was among the dead.
Local Hazara leader Mohammed Mohaqiq told the gathering that the explosion was an attempt to terrorize Afghans. He blamed the Taleban and the Daesh , both of which have targeted ethnic Hazaras in the past.
The spokesman for the Health Ministry, Wahid Majro, said several of the wounded were in critical condition and feared the death toll could rise further.
In other developments, the Taleban launched a deadly assault overnight on an army outpost in a remote region of Afghanistan’s northern Takhar province, killing six soldiers and wounding five in a blistering hours-long attack.
Members of the local police who were sent to assist the soldiers were ambushed by the Taleban while on their way to the outpost in the remote district of Khwaja Ghar.
Ten local policemen were killed and nine were wounded in the ambush, provincial police spokesman Khali Aseir said. —