DOZENS KILLED AS KABUL CAR BOMB DESTROYS BUS
▶ Sectarian violence grows after coach carrying government employees is hit in Shiite area, injuring 42
At least 24 people were killed and 42 wounded yesterday after a car bomb claimed by the Taliban struck a bus carrying government employees through a Shiite neighbourhood in Kabul.
The attack marks an alarming increase in sectarian violence in the Afghan capital.
The bus was carrying employees of the ministry of mines, who were travelling from western Kabul to the ministry during rush hour, said interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish.
It was struck by the car bomb as it passed through a busy area of the capital that is home to many Shiite Hazaras, a persecuted ethnic minority. The area is also near the home of prominent politician and former warlord Mohammad Mohaqeq.
A photographer at the scene saw several bodies and wounded people in the street, surrounded by shattered glass as security forces cordoned off the area.
The charred remains of the bus were left smoking in the middle of the road as the wounded were taken to hospitals in ambulances, private cars and taxis.
“It was a huge explosion, my house nearly collapsed, it broke all our windows and doors,” a resident of the neighbourhood said.
He rushed into the street which, he said, was “filled with human flesh and blood”.
“It was horrible,” said shopkeeper Momin. “For at least 10 minutes we didn’t know what had happened. It almost destroyed my shop. It is a crowded area – many of my friends and other shopkeepers are either killed or wounded.”
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast, which occurred just before 7am local time.
The militant group has increased attacks across Afghanistan in recent days, and captured a new district in Ghor province over the weekend.
The insurgents rarely claim attacks with high civilian casualties, but frequently target government employees.
A spokesman claimed on the group’s Twitter account that the bus had been carrying employees of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency.
Yesterday’s attack came as Kabul’s Hazara community had planned to hold a demonstration in the neighbourhood to mark the first anniversary of twin bombings that killed 84 people, mostly members of the ethnic minority.
But they had agreed to postpone the protest over security fears after meeting with president Ashraf Ghani on Sunday, according to a presidential statement.
The bombings on July 23 last year were claimed by ISIL, its first significant assault in the heart of the Afghan capital.
The Taliban have carried out sectarian attacks, although they have been rare in Sunni-majority Afghanistan throughout its decades of war.
The rise of ISIL, which has frequently targeted Shiites, has increased concerns of more such assaults, with fears yesterday that Hazaras had been the target of the car bomb rather than the government employees, whose ethnicity was not immediately clear. Others suggested the politician Mr Mohaqeq could have been the target.
Omid Maisom Mohaqiq, a spokesman for Mr Mohaqeq, said the bomb went off near a checkpoint approaching the politician’s house.
Suicide bombs and assaults have become regular occurences in Kabul. A recent UN report showed that attacks in the capital accounted for one fifth of all civilian Afghan casualties in the first half of the year.
Many died in a single devastating attack in May when a lorry bomb exploded, also during the morning Kabul rush hour, killing more than 150 people and injuring hundreds.
The UN assistance mission in Afghanistan put the civilian death toll at 92, saying it was the deadliest incident in the country since 2001.
The bloody toll for the first six months of this year has unsettled the government and put increasing pressure on Mr Ghani, who condemned yesterday’s attack.