Toll in truck bombing over 150, president says
KABUL — The Afghan president said that more than 150 people were killed and more than 300 were wounded by the truck bombing outside the German Embassy last week, making it possibly the deadliest such attack since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
The president, Ashraf Ghani, made the disclosure — increasing the death toll by more than 50 — during a speech at a one-day peace conference his government convened in the capital Tuesday.
The meeting, called the Kabul Process, drew representatives of 20 countries and international organizations, but it included no one from the Taliban or other insurgent groups. Ghani’s own foreign minister apparently even boycotted the gathering, as antigovernment demonstrators continued to defy orders to leave camps they had set up in the city.
In what seemed to be a bid to create a safer environment for the event, Ghani on short notice declared Tuesday a national holiday, with the police blocking all except official traffic from the roads.
But shortly after the president opened the Kabul Process, at least one rocket was fired into the Green Zone nearby, the area that houses the headquarters of the coalition forces as well as several foreign embassies, police said; the weapon landed at a tennis court close to the U.S. military headquarters, but no one was injured. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack but have denied any role in the bombing last week.
The bombing, involving a sewage tanker truck that exploded at an entrance of the Green Zone, destroyed buildings in a wide radius.
That assault now has the highest officially confirmed death toll of any insurgent attack, but unofficial counts have been higher in other episodes, including a massacre at an army base in April, in which 160 were reported to have been killed.
After the blast Wednesday, protesters, many of them members of the powerful northern Jamiat-i-Islami party, took to the streets, accusing government officials of cooperating with terrorists. The police fired at the crowds to suppress the demonstrations Friday, killing nine. At the funeral on Saturday for one of the victims, the son of a prominent politician, three suicide bombers struck on foot, killing at least a dozen, according to local news media.
The skirmishes have since subsided, but demonstrators set up at least three camps and defied government orders to disband.
Despite heightened tensions, the government said it was determined to proceed with the peace conference Tuesday, rather than be seen to be giving in to terrorism.
Ghani made no clear new initiatives at the peace talks but said the government was ready to meet with the Taliban anywhere and would agree to their opening an official office where representatives of both sides could convene.
A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the talks were pointless because foreign troops remained in the country. “While Afghanistan is occupied, discussion and talking about peace will not have any outcome or meaning,” he said.