Use of ambulance as weapon ‘unacceptable’
A suicide bomber in Afghanistan drove an ambulance into central Kabul by pretending to be carrying a patient to hospital, then detonated his explosives at a checkpoint near the European Union and Indian consulates.
At least 103 people were killed and 235 injured in the attack claimed by the Taliban.
US President Donald Trump condemned the bombing, saying: “This murderous attack renews our resolve and that of our Afghan partners. The Taliban’s cruelty will not prevail.”
Trump called on countries to “take decisive action against the Taliban and the terrorist infrastructure that supports them”.
The powerful explosion, which came a week after Taliban militants killed 22 people at a hotel in the capital, was felt throughout the city and covered the blast area in smoke and dust. Dozens of vehicles and shops were damaged or destroyed.
Windows at the nearby Jamhuriat government hospital were shattered, and its walls damaged. People ran out to help, and ambulances took dozens of the wounded to hospitals.
The attacker used the ambulance to coast through one security checkpoint and then detonated his explosives at a second checkpoint, the Interior Ministry said.
“The majority of the dead in the attack are civilians, but of course we have military casualties as well,” spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the bombing. It has been a month of relentless attacks across Afghanistan, with the Taliban and an Isis affiliate making alternate claims of responsibility. The brutality and frequency of attacks has shattered Afghanistan’s usually quiet winter, when fighting normally slows down.
The International Committee of the Red Cross seethed that the ambulance attack was “unacceptable and unjustifiable”, saying in a tweet: “The use of an ambulance in today’s attack in #Kabul is harrowing.”
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the Taliban’s use of an ambulance as a weapon to target civilians “represents inhumane disregard for the people of Afghanistan . . . and is a violation of the most basic international norms”.
One hospital received so many victims that news reports said some had to be treated in the facility’s yard despite the winter cold.
“I have not seen such a horrible scene in my entire life,” said Mohammad Fahim, 20, an employee of the Kabul police department who was in the Interior Ministry compound when the bomb exploded metres away. He said windows shattered, wounding him slightly, and he came out to help evacuate more seriously hurt people to hospitals.
Hours later, people crowded outside the Emergency Hospital, some seeking information about loved ones, others offering to donate blood.