Blast kills 90, injures 400 inside ‘safe’ zone

KABUL — A massive blast tore through the diplomatic quarter of the Afghan capital Wednesday, killing at least 90 people and wounding more than 400, officials said. The devastation left Kabul in shock and underlined the country’s security struggles as it confronts a sustained wave of insurgent and terrorist attacks.

Interior Ministry officials said a huge quantity of explosives, hidden in a tanker truck, detonated at 8:30 a.m. during

rush hour on a busy boulevard in the Wazir Akbar Khan district, which houses embassies, banks, supermarkets and government ministries. An entire city block was ravaged, with office buildings left in rubble and charred vehicles strewn across the road in one of the deadliest single attacks in Kabul.

The scenes of human horror were appalling, even for a country accustomed to war and violence.

At Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital, a steady stream of ambulances and police trucks delivered burned and mangled bodies, many streaming blood. Medical aides struggled to zip them quickly into body bags as distraught people crowded around, looking for missing relatives.

“I felt like it was an earthquake, and after that I do not know what happened,” said Mohammed Hassan, 21, who was attending a training program at the Azizi Bank a half block from the blast and suffered cuts on his head and arms. “All the staff around me, everyone, was injured.” He said he was brought to the hospital by an Afghan army ranger truck.

The dead and wounded were almost all Afghan civilians and security forces: police officers, bank clerks, cart pullers, telephone company workers. The dead included at least five women, an Afghan driver for the BBC and at least nine Afghan guards stationed at points outside the U.S. Embassy.

Although many foreign offices are nearby — many surrounded by high blast walls — there were no reports of foreigners among the fatalities. But some workers in diplomatic compounds, including those of Japan and Germany, were among the injured.At least 11 U.S. citizens working as contractors also were injured, a State Department spokesman said.

The Afghan Taliban denied any role in the bombing, which was followed by a second, smaller blast in another part of the city. The Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, did not speculate on which group could have carried out the attacks but said it should “become clear at a later stage.”

Security agencies had warned that Taliban insurgents and regional affiliates of the Islamic State were planning to attack high-profile targets in the city in the early part of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that began last week.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government issued a statement condemning the blasts as “heinous acts that go against the values of humanity as well as values of peaceful Afghans.” It also said the attacks “demonstrate the extreme level of atrocity by terrorists against innocent civilians.”

President Donald Trump spoke with Ghani after the attack, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson condemned it as a “senseless and cowardly act.”

“The United States stands with the government and the people of Afghanistan and will continue to support their efforts to achieve peace, security, and prosperity for their country,” Tillerson said in a statement.

A statement from NATO forces in Afghanistan praised “the courage of Afghan Security Forces, especially the police and first responders.”

“Attacks such as these only serve to strengthen our commitment to our Afghan partners as they seek a peaceful, stable future for their country,” the NATO statement added.

There are 8,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan supporting the government, but earlier this year, Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander there, said he needed several thousand more to break the stalemate. The U.S. Embassy is about a half-mile from the blast site, but at least nine of its Afghan guards died in the blast, the State Department said. Also, 11 American contractors were wounded, though none had life-threatening injuries.

Public anger at the Afghan government built during the traumatic hours after the blast. The Ghani government, weakened by internal tensions, has faced an uphill battle to fend off an aggressive push by Taliban insurgents in recent months, as well as a number of assaults claimed by the Islamic State.

Others expressed disgust for the attackers, especially since they chose Ramadan, a period that Muslims devote to prayer and fasting.”How can the people who did this call themselves Muslims?” demanded Ahmed Mohibzada, 24, an office worker who had walked to the Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital to donate blood after hearing of the massive number of injured survivors.

He was lying on a gurney in the hospital porch with his sleeve rolled up. “I just felt I had to do something,” he said.