Isil blamed as Kabul bomb kills 90
BBC journalists caught as rush-hour blast shatters diplomatic quarter and wrecks German embassy
A TRUCK bomb tore through the diplomatic quarter of Kabul yesterday, killing at least 90 people, including a BBC driver, and badly damaging Germany’s Afghanistan embassy.
The massive bomb was hidden inside a sewage tank on the back of the truck and it exploded during the morning rush hour, wounding about 400 people and leaving a large crater.
If suspicions that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) was behind the attack are confirmed, it would represent an escalation in what has already been a deadly string of attacks as the Islamic holy month of Ramadan starts.
The attack was one of the deadliest in Kabul since the Nato invasion in 2001. Mohammed Nazir, an Afghan driver for the BBC, was among the dead and four BBC journalists from Afghanistan were wounded as they drove towards their Kabul bureau.
John Simpson, the BBC’S world affairs editor, said: “Shocking news of death of BBC Kabul driver Mohammed Nazir in IS [Isil] bomb. A good, decent, brave man’s life snuffed out for no reason.”
Britain’s embassy sustained only minor damage and remained operational. No staff were injured and no British troops were caught up in the blast. “It felt like an earthquake,” said Mohammad Hassan, 21, a bank worker who was injured as the bomb detonated close to the Germany embassy, killing one Afghan security guard there and wounding both a German diplomat and an Afghan employee.
The building’s windows were blown out and many of the rooms facing the blast appeared badly damaged. Most of the 90 people killed were civilians.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, condemned the bombing and said terrorism “targets all of us – whether in Manchester or Berlin, Paris, Istanbul, St Petersburg or today in Kabul”.
Germany announced it would temporarily halt deportations of failed Afghan asylum seekers because its diplomats at the embassy would not be able to process them. The government said the pause was not a change in policy and it believed Kabul was still a safe place to send unsuccessful claimants back to.
Afghan officials said the German embassy may not have been the target and that the attackers may have been forced to detonate the bomb prematurely because they were not able to get the tanker into the heart of Kabul’s diplomatic “Green Zone”.
The Taliban denied responsibility for the bombing, placing suspicion for the attack on the Afghan branch of Isil, known as Khorasan Province.
That group has already claimed an attack in March that killed about 50 people when gunmen disguised themselves as doctors and opened fire inside a military hospital in Kabul.
However, successfully detonating a large explosion close to foreign embas- sies would be a significant step up in the group’s capabilities.
In April, the US dropped the “mother of all bombs”, its largest conventional weapon, on a tunnel complex used by Khorasan Province. However, it was not clear that the bomb did much to disrupt the group’s operations.
Elsewhere, Isil killed at least 27 people in a pair of bombings in Baghdad on Monday and Tuesday, marking a bloody start to Ramadan.
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, was “appalled” by yesterday’s atrocity. “I condemn those behind this cruel attack. We stand with Afghanistan against terrorism,” he said. Other world leaders from the Pope to Canada’s Justin Trudeau condemned the attack.
The deadly suicide truck bomb that yesterday brought devastation to the centre of Kabul, killing at least 80 people and wounding hundreds more, demonstrates the deepening threat Islamist militants pose to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Although neither the Taliban nor other Islamist terror groups claimed responsibility for the attack, the sophistication of the bombing during the morning rush hour in the heart of the city’s heavily guarded diplomatic quarter highlighted the continued ability of militants to strike at even the city’s most secure areas.
Nor is there likely to be any coincidence about the timing of the attack, which took place as Washington and allies such as Britain consider sending more troops to back up Mr Ghani’s beleaguered government. Since the majority of Western forces withdrew from Afghanistan in late 2014, the Afghan security forces have struggled to hold on to the large areas of the country they vacated, including areas of southern Afghanistan, where British forces suffered significant losses fighting the Taliban. In addition, the Afghan security forces are struggling to cope with the new threat posed by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant militants in eastern and northern areas of the country.
With so much of the world’s attention focused on dealing with Isil strongholds in Iraq, Syria and Libya, it is perhaps inevitable that there is less focus on Afghanistan. But at a time when Isil is losing ground in places such as Mosul and Raqqa, it will be looking for new areas to use as bases to proselytise its evil creed. It is therefore essential that the West remains vigilant, and takes the necessary action to keep the militants at bay.