Afghans pay fatal price for being near pricey restaurant

KABUL, Afghanistan — Everyone on Ninth Street in central Kabul’s Taimani neighborhood knew of the high-priced French restaurant that dominated their simple, unpaved road.

Few, if any, had ever glimpsed the sprawling garden and multicolored flowers that lay behind the mammoth iron gate of Le Jardin. They only saw the armored cars of foreign dignitaries and Afghan political elites who often dined there.

Residents viewed the restaurant not just as an eyesore, but as a threat to their lives and livelihoods — a target for insurgents who have attacked such foreigner-friendly establishments with increasing frequency in recent years. Le Jardin became the latest Friday evening when a Taliban militant detonated a suicide bomb outside the restaurant, killing two people, a security guard and a 12-year-old boy, and injuring at least 15 others.

“I remember when ambassadors and ministers would come — the whole street would be shut down by police,” recalled Massoud, 13.

The Taliban said they had targeted a “restaurant of foreigners.” But residents said all of the victims were Afghan residents.

Among them was the 12-year-old boy, Baset, whom neighbors recalled fondly for his distinctive laugh. At the time of the bombing, Baset was standing a few feet from his home.

“He was a kind, simple boy,” Massoud said. “He didn’t deserve to die like that.”

For Afghans caught in ongoing violence between the Western-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani and an armed opposition led by the Taliban, the attack was a deadly reminder of the deep uncertainty they still must live with, 14 years after the U.S.-led military invasion.

Like several other highpriced eateries, Le Jardin was located in a residential area of Kabul. Locals find themselves near the cross- hairs of insurgents simply because of their proximity to establishments they know nothing about.

In January 2014, Taliban militants attacked a Lebanese restaurant, killing 20 people. Among the dead were 13 foreigners and seven Afghans.

The security concerns — along with a stagnant economy and dwindling international military presence that has reduced their customer base — have caused nearly all of the restaurants that catered to expatriates and Afghan elites to close. To some Kabul residents, that has come as a relief.

Outside Le Jardin on Saturday afternoon, one angry resident in his 60s, his home nearly leveled by the blast, yelled: “It was a whorehouse! Why, why was it here in our neighborhood?”

A second and third attacker, one of whom police said was wearing a military uniform, were captured after Saturday’s blast. Another suspect is still at large.

Tribune Newspapers’ Shashank Bengali in Mumbai, India, contributed.