Afghans mourn dead
Massive truck bomb kills at least 90, wounds hundreds in capital
KABUL — Afghans mourned the loss of family members, friends and colleagues on Thursday, a day after a massive truck bomb exploded in the capital, killing at least 90 people and wounding more than 450 in one of the worst extremist attacks since the drawdown of foreign forces from the country in 2014.
Scores of people waited in hospitals to learn the status of their family members and friends wounded in the attack. Funeral processions took place throughout Kabul on Thursday.
In Wednesday’s attack, the suicide truck bomber drove into Kabul’s heavily guarded diplomatic quarter during the morning rush, leaving behind chaos and destruction. Most of the casualties were civilians, including women and children, but the dead also included Afghan security guards working around the many embassies in the area.
The explosives were hidden in a tanker truck used to clean out septic systems, according to Najib Danish, deputy spokesman for the interior minister. The trucks are a very common sight in Kabul, a city with no sewage system.
The blast gouged a crater about five metres deep near Zanbaq Square in the Wazir Akbar Khan district, where foreign embassies are protected by their own security personnel as well as Afghan police and National Security Forces. The nearby German Embassy was heavily damaged.
Also in the area is Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry, the Presidential Palace and its intelligence and security headquarters, guarded by soldiers trained by the U.S. and its coalition partners.
There was no claim of responsibility for the bombing, which came in the first week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The Taliban flatly denied any involvement in an e-mail to news outlets and condemned all attacks against civilians.
The city’s acting mayor, Abdullah Habibzai, said an initial estimate put the total damage from the bombing at $1.5 million, but said that number could rise.
He said city workers had removed around 200 large trucks of garbage and debris by Thursday morning.
“We have transported a large number or a large amount of broken glass and windows,” he said.
Hundreds gathered in a Kabul cemetery for the funeral of Zemarai Khan, a security guard who lost his life in the attack.
Jan Mohammad, Zamarai’s brother, said Zemarai died alongside nine of his fellow guards who worked for a private security company. Mohammad said he saw news of the bombing on TV and tried to call his brother, who never answered his phone. “From that moment I realized that my brother is dead,” he said.
He said transporting his brother’s body home was the hardest thing he has ever done. “No one can imagine the moment that seven children of my brother realized that their father is not alive anymore, he said.
Meanwhile, some people were still missing and families were searching for news about loved ones in local hospitals.
Mohammad Sarwar stood crying behind the gate of an emergency hospital, looking for his nephew, Habibullah, who was missing.
“This is the second day that we are searching for my nephew Habibiullah and have been to all Kabul hospitals, still couldn’t find him,” he said.
Afghanistan’s war, the longest yet involving U.S. troops, has shown no sign of letting up and the introduction into the battle of an Islamic State group affiliate has made the country only more volatile.