Nato convoy attack in Kabul kills eight
KABUL — A suicide car bomber struck a US military convoy in the Afghan capital on Wednesday, killing at least eight Afghan civilians and wounding three US service members in an attack claimed by the Daesh group.
Najib Danish, deputy spokesman for the Interior Ministry, confirmed the toll and said another 25 Afghan civilians were wounded in the morning rush-hour attack near the US Embassy, which destroyed several civilian vehicles
US Navy Cpt. Bill Salvin, a military spokesman, confirmed that three soldiers were wounded in the attack.
The Daesh group claimed the attack in a statement carried by its Aamaq media arm. An affiliate of the extremist group has gathered strength in recent years, and is now at war with both the US-backed government and the much larger Taleban insurgency.
The attack comes three weeks after the US dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on the militant group’s hideous in eastern part of Afghanistan.
Nato commander in Afghanistan General John Nicholson said the strike, which triggered global shockwaves, showed there was “no space” for Daesh in the wartorn country.
Monday’s attack comes as the US seeks to craft a new strategy in Afghanistan and Nato mulls boosting troop levels as they face a “stalemate” against the resurgent Taleban.
The blast damaged two of the heavily armoured vehicles in the convoy and left a small crater in the road.
MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles, which are designed to withstand large explosions, are routinely used by international forces moving around Kabul.
At least three civilian cars were also damaged, with one ablaze, while windows were shattered up to several hundred metres away. Firefighters and ambulances rushed stunned survivors to hospital.
Nicholson has said the US decision to drop the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast on Daesh hideouts in Nangarhar province last month was a “very clear message” to the group: “If they come to Afghanistan they will be destroyed”. Last week, two US troops were killed in an operation against Daesh near where the bomb was dropped. The Pentagon has said it is investigating if they were killed by friendly fire.
Pentagon chief Jim Mattis warned of “another tough year” for both foreign troops and local forces in Afghanistan when he visited Kabul last month.
He would not be drawn on calls by Nicholson for a “few thousand” more troops to break the “stalemate” against the Taleban insurgents.
But Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg told a German newspaper on Sunday that the 28-nation alliance was considering boosting its troop strength once more given the “challenging” security situation.
The US has around 8,400 troops in the country with about another 5,000 from Nato allies.
Captain Bill Salvin, spokesman for US Forces-Afghanistan, said the local Daesh presence peaked at between 2,500 to 3,000 but that defections and recent battlefield losses had reduced their number to a maximum of 800.