Kabul blasts shake rally attended by several senior Afghan politicians
A mortar attack on a gathering in Kabul on Thursday killed at least three people and injured 22, including a woman and children, officials said.
The ceremony celebrated the 24th anniversary of the death of Abdul Ali Mazari, an Afghan politician popular among Afghanistan’s Hazara Shia minority. He was assassinated in 1995 by the Taliban, and was recently awarded the title Martyr of National Unity.
Many prominent Afghan political figures were targeted, including Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, former president Hamid Karzai and former national security adviser and presidential candidate Hanif Atmar, none of whom was hurt in the attack.
“This was the most horrid and unforgivable attack on civilians by a merciless enemy,” he tweeted. Eight of his bodyguards were injured.
The attack, claimed by ISIS, was a major security breach and the resumption of violence in the capital casts a shadow on the peace talks between the US and Taliban in Doha. One of the militants was arrested by Afghanistan security forces and the rest were surrounded by police, said Gen Khoshal Sadat, deputy minister for security at the Ministry of Interior.
ISIS fighters targeted the ceremony with mortar fire, the group’s propaganda agency Amaq said. The group has been relatively quiet in recent months as the Taliban, Afghan security forces, and the US all target its shrinking stronghold in east Afghanistan near the Pakistan border. According to local media, it was an elaborate assault involving rockets and hand grenades.
A local reporter, who was close to the attack, told The National he heard up to 24 explosions.
The first rockets fell while Dr Abdullah was delivering his speech.
“Terrorists were firing mortars at Abdul Ali Mazari remembrance ceremony, from inside a compound [that] belongs to Roshan phone tower,” Gen Sadat said. “I was distributing flowers to women before Women’s Day, and was a few miles out, on the main road when I heard the explosions,” Sahraa, an artist, told The National.
“There was wave of explosions,” said Sahraa, who asked that her full name not be disclosed. “People were screaming and there was a change in environment,” she said as she left the area. But the younger women around Sahraa seemed unfazed.
“It didn’t seem to startle them as much … they cursed the political leaders of the country,” she said, an indication of what some say is the rising apathy to violence among Afghans.
The latest report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan made 2018 the worst year in the Afghan war for civilian casualties an estimated 10,993, of which 3,804 were fatalities.
Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack. “Attacking public gatherings is a criminal act and is enmity against civil and democratic values,” Mr Ghani said.
The last major attack in Kabul was in January when the Taliban claimed responsibility for a car bomb in the heavily fortified Green Village foreign compound.