Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Suicide blast rocks Afghan capital
Killer drove ambulance; death toll 95
KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber driving an ambulance killed at least 95 people and wounded 158 others in an attack claimed by the Taliban in the Afghan capital Kabul, authorities said. The bombing Saturday came just a week after Taliban militants killed 22 people at an international hotel in the city.
Saturday’s explosion was felt throughout the city and covered the blast area in smoke and dust. Dozens of vehicles were damaged or destroyed, and several shops, including some selling antiques and photography equipment, were decimated.
Windows at the nearby Jamhuriat government hospital were shattered, and its walls were damaged. People ran out to help, and ambulances arrived to transport dozens of wounded people to hospitals.
The attacker used the
ambulance to coast through one security checkpoint in central Kabul by telling police he was transporting a patient and then detonated his explosives at a second checkpoint, the Interior Ministry said. Four suspects in the deadly bombing, which occurred near the European Union and Indian consulates, had been arrested and were being questioned, the ministry said, but it didn’t elaborate.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said in an emailed statement that the attack was aimed at a police check post near the ministry, but officials said most of those killed and injured were civilians.
“The majority of the dead in the attack are civilians, but of course we have military casualties as well,” ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said.
The blast also occurred close to an office of the Afghan High Peace Council, which was established to promote peace talks with the Taliban.
For hours after the blast, plumes of smoke rose from buildings, shattered glass could be seen for blocks around, cars sat in charred heaps and ambulance sirens wailed.
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 inside the mosque of the Interior Ministry compound when the bomb exploded yards away. He said the mosque’s windows shattered, wounding him slightly, and he ran out to help evacuate more seriously hurt people to hospitals.
Hours after the bombing, municipal trucks carried loads of debris and broken glass from the site, and people crowded outside the gates of the Emergency Hospital, some seeking information about their loved ones and others offering to donate blood.
“For God’s sake, read the list,” one man pleaded with hospital employees who had carried out a list of people admitted with injuries. Mohammed Hussain Akbari, 22, waited two hours for news of his uncle, who had recently applied to join the police force. “He is not among the wounded. I hope he is not among the martyrs,” Akbari said.
It has been a month of relentless attacks across Afghanistan, with the Taliban and an Islamic State group affiliate making alternate claims of responsibility. The brutality and frequency of the attacks, including one in December at a Shiite cultural center, have shattered Afghanistan’s usually quiet winter, when fighting normally slows down.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres quickly condemned Saturday’s attack, saying through a spokesman that “Indiscriminate attacks against civilians … can never be justified.” U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass called the attack “senseless and cowardly.”
And 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.”
U.S. 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.”
President Donald Trump condemned “the despicable car bombing attack” and said “all countries should take decisive action” against the Taliban.
Trump said the “murderous attack” renews the U.S. resolve with its Afghan partners.
“The Taliban’s cruelty will not prevail,” and the U.S. is “committed to a secure Afghanistan that is free from terrorists,” he said.
It was the second Taliban attack in a week on high-security targets in the city.
Last weekend, six Taliban militants attacked Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel, leaving 22 people, including 14 foreigners, dead. About 150 guests climbed down bedsheets tied to balconies to flee the gunbattle and the fire sparked by the assault. The U.S. Department of State said American citizens were killed and injured in that attack.
The hotel attack prompted the United States to repeat its demand that Pakistan expel Taliban members who have found sanctuary on its soil, with particular reference to the Haqqani network.
On Wednesday a U.S. drone slammed into Pakistani tribal territory that borders Afghanistan, killing two Haqqani commanders, said Pakistani officials, who deny providing organized camps for their safety. Pakistan says the Taliban cross the porous border that separates the countries along with the estimated 1.5 million Afghan refugees still living in Pakistan.
The recent attacks have infuriated Afghans, frustrated by the worsening security after 16 years of war. The Afghans have expressed their anger with neighbor
Pakistan for harboring insurgents and with the U.S.led coalition for its inability to suppress the insurgency. They also have blamed the deteriorating security situation on a deeply divided government embroiled in political feuding that has paralyzed the parliament.
“Our leaders fight each other over government positions. Taliban and [Islamic State] are taking advantage of the situation,” a man said at the Emergency Hospital.
Ahmad Saeedi, a former diplomat, told a TV news interviewer that “if the current government had a conscience, all these attacks wouldn’t have happened. The authorities are busy with personal confrontations and deals.”
Officials “wear posh suits” and visit hospitals to show off, he said, but “they don’t care about what is going on in this country.”
After Saturday’s attacks, Pakistan issued a statement that condemned the bombing, saying, “No cause or ends justify acts of terrorism against innocent people.”
Afghan security forces, whose competency has been uneven, have struggled to fight the Taliban since the U.S. and NATO formally ended their combat mission in 2014.
Trump has pursued a plan that involves sending thousands more troops to Afghanistan and envisions shifting away from a timebased approach to one that more explicitly links U.S. assistance to concrete results from the Afghan government.
The Republican president’s U.N. envoy, Nikki Haley, said after a recent visit to Afghanistan that his policy was working and that peace talks between the government and the Taliban are closer than ever before.