Kabul still reeling from deadly truck bombing
KABUL was reeling yesterday from its deadliest attack since 2001, with anguished families burying their dead as authorities cleared mangled wreckage and public anger mounted over the government’s failure to protect citizens in the heart of the capital.
No group has so far claimed Wednesday’s attack, launched from a sewage tanker packed with explosives, which tore a massive crater in the ground and killed at least 90 people, mainly civilians, while wounding hundreds.
The brazen attack during the holy month of Ramadan highlighted the ability of militants to strike even in the capital’s most secure district, home to the presidential palace and foreign embassies enveloped in a maze of concrete blast walls.
Angry citizens demanded answers from the government over the perceived intelligence failure leading to the assault, which underscores spiralling insecurity in Afghanistan.
“For how long will we have to tolerate this bloodshed in our country?” a sobbing resident asked on local Tolo News.
“I have lost my brother in the blast and the government is constantly failing to provide us with security.”
Authorities swept away debris and glass littered across the streets, and cleared away charred remains of blown-up vehicles, as shocked residents held emotionally charged funerals.
With more than 400 people wounded, the injured spilled over into hospital hallways as huge crowds gathered outside waiting for news of their loved ones or searching for missing relatives.
Health officials warned that some victims might never be identified as their bodies were torn into pieces or burnt beyond recognition.
Afghanistan’s intelligence agency has blamed the Taliban-allied Haqqani Network for the attack.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is expected to approve the execution of 11 Taliban and Haqqani prisoners, a government source said, in apparent retaliation for the assault.
The Taliban -- in the midst of their annual “spring offensive” -- denied being involved, and the Islamic State group so far has not issued a claim in the attack.
Global outrage swelled yesterday over the blast, the deadliest single attack in Kabul since the Taliban were toppled from power in a 2001 US-led invasion.
US President Donald Trump told Ghani in a phone call that the timing of the attack during Ramadan underscored “the barbaric nature of the terrorists who are enemies of all civilised peoples”, while UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres expressed his abhorrence at the strike.