ISIL CLAIMS AFGHAN HOLIDAY SUICIDE ATTACK THAT KILLED 26
Bomber struck during Nowruz celebrations after making it through checkpoints
An ISIL suicide bomber killed at least 26 people in Kabul and injured dozens more on the road to a Shiite shrine, as Afghans celebrated the new year festival of Nowruz yesterday.
It was the fifth major attack in the capital in recent weeks, with the attacker making it to within 200 metres of the shrine before he detonated his bomb in a vast crowd.
There were distressing scenes at the hospital opposite the blast site where grief-stricken relatives screamed as they clutched and hugged the bloodied bodies of their loved ones, on what is normally a day of celebration for families.
Nowruz is a national holiday that marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Afghanistan’s minority Shiites typically celebrate by visiting shrines.
“They were mostly people celebrating Nowruz,” said Nasrat Rahimi, the deputy spokesman for Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry.
The bomber struck near the Karte Sakhi shrine, with officials saying a heavy security presence meant he could not reach the main building.
“He detonated himself among teenagers returning from there,” said Kabul police chief Mohammad Daud Amin.
Mr Amin admitted that the attacker had managed to slip past earlier police checkpoints and said an investigation into that was under way.
Afghan security forces and the government have long been accused of incompetence and an inability to protect citizens.
Witnesses told police that the bomb had been hidden inside a drum carried by the attacker, which detonated as onlookers came closer. Bloodied bodies were scattered among belongings on the street.
President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack, calling it a crime against humanity.
ISIL, which regularly targets Shiites to try to stir up sectarian violence in Sunni-majority Afghanistan, claimed responsibility through its propaganda arm Amaq, monitoring group Site Intelligence said.
The insurgents had attacked the same shrine once before, in October 2016, when gunmen killed 18 people gathered to mark Ashura, an important date for many Muslims, especially Shiites.
There were fears that yesterday’s death toll could rise beyond 26, the figure from the interior ministry. The health ministry said 29 people were killed and 52 wounded.
Only hours after the attack,
families came out on to Kabul streets with colourful clothes to celebrate the new year holiday. Children flew kites and people walked up the hills eating and talking.
The Taliban and ISIL have increasingly targeted the city in recent months as US and Afghan forces increase air strikes and ground attacks against the groups.
Yesterday’s blast came days after a Taliban suicide attacker blew up a bomb-laden car in Kabul, causing casualties.
Some western and Afghan security experts believe the Haqqani Network, a hardline wing of the Taliban, has been behind some of the attacks in Kabul in recent months, including those claimed by ISIL.
The Taliban faces growing pressure to take up a recent offer by Mr Ghani of peace talks to end the 16-year war.
This latest suicide attack underscores the growing challenge facing Afghan and foreign forces to protect the already heavily militarised city.
Gen John Nicholson, who leads US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, recently said that protecting Kabul was a priority for foreign troops.
“Kabul is our main effort right now – to harden Kabul, to protect the people of Kabul and the international community that are here because of the strategic impact that has,” Gen Nicholson said.
But he acknowledged that preventing further attacks would be challenging in the sprawling city, which is poorly mapped and has extremely porous borders.
The latest attack came as US Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Joseph Dunford visited Afghanistan to assess the military campaign against insurgents weeks before the start of the spring fighting season, which is expected to be particularly bloody this year.
Despite calls for the Taliban to sit down with the Afghan government and talk, the group appears to have few reasons to negotiate.