Suicide bomber strikes outside police office in Kabul, kills 10
KABUL: A suicide bomber blew himself up in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Monday, killing 10 people and wounding 20 after joining a queue to enter an office of the civil order police, a senior official said.
Kabul was hit last month by a series of suicide attacks as the Taliban have stepped up their campaign against the Western-backed government.
The attacks coincided with renewed efforts to revive a peace process with the insurgent movement that stalled last year.
Deputy Interior Minister Ayub Salangi announced Monday’s casualty figures in a post on social media website Twitter, and said most were civilians.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement that said 40 police officers had been killed or wounded. The group often makes exaggerated casualty claims for its attacks.
Ambulances and police vehicles rushed to the explosion site in the crowded Dehmazang district west of the city, near the Kabul traffic directorate, which is visited by those seeking driving licences and other documents.
“I saw three bodies on the ground and a number of other people wounded, then ambulances arrived and took all the victims away,” said witness Mohammad Ajmal. The Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP) was set up as a gendarmerie-style unit to control riots and urban disorder but have also been used in counterinsurgency roles against the Taliban.
Militants and bad weather in northern Afghanistan have hampered efforts to repair power lines that were destroyed last week, cutting electricity in the capital, Kabul, to about six hours a day, officials said on Monday.
Destroyed
Insurgents last week destroyed an electricity pylon in the Dand Shahabuddin district of Baghlan province that brought power from Uzbekistan to meet almost half of Kabul’s 600 megawatt daily requirement. Mirwais Alami, chief commercial officer at Afghanistan’s national power company, said repair crews had been unable to get close to the power lines because of mines and the threat from insurgents and said residents reported that more pylons had been brought down.
“Enemy forces have brought machine saws and have been cutting down electricity pylons,” he said. The Taliban has denied being responsible for bringing down the power lines, saying such tactics, which hit ordinary people, do not fit with their fight against the foreign-backed government.
The destruction of the power lines has hit businesses and industry and added further misery for Kabul’s long-suffering residents, already tested by a series of suicide bomb attacks this year.
For the well-off with private generators, the cuts have meant higher fuel bills but for those who rely on the public grid, they have meant dark nights and reliance on wood-burning stoves to fight the winter cold.
Abdul Satar Barez, the provincial governor of Baghlan, said operations to secure the area in order to allow repair crews to work on the pylons had been suspended due to fog and bad weather.