95 killed in suicide bombing outside hospital
KABUL, Afghanistan — At least 95 people were killed and more than 150 injured outside a hospital in Kabul on Saturday after a Taliban suicide bomber detonated explosives stuffed into an ambulance he drove past a security checkpoint.
It was the second massive attack in a week on a well- secured location in Afghanistan’s beleaguered capital.
The attacker got past the security checkpoint by telling officers he was taking a patient to the hospital, said Nasrat Rahimi, deputy spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Public Health. He detonated the explosives at a second checkpoint, officials said.
More than 158 people were wounded in the blast, which damaged multiple buildings and was heard across Kabul.
The toll climbed sharply throughout the day, making the blast one of the deadliest in the 16- year war in Afghanistan. It came a week after Taliban militants attacked Kabul’s six- story Intercontinental hotel and killed 22 people in an hours- long siege that ended only after Afghan and U. S. special operations forces conducted a room-toroom search and found the attackers and several guests had escaped by jumping off balconies.
Several Americans were killed or wounded in the hotel attack, Afghan officials said.
The scale of Taliban attacks has increased in recent months despite a surge in U. S. troops advising Afghan forces and assurances from U. S. military commanders that the coalition troops are turning the tide in the war.
Saturday’s attack took place in the early afternoon between two checkpoints leading to Jamhuriat Hospital, a 350- bed facility built by China a decade ago. Surrounding it is a bustling neighborhood housing government buildings as well as commercial streets lined with poultry vendors and shops, where many office