Taliban Attack in Kabul Kills 24
Officials have confirmed the death of 24 people following a suicide bombing in Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul early this morning.
According to Basir Mujahed, Kabul police chief spokesperson, a suicide bomber drove a vehicle packed with explosives into a minibus carrying Afghan government employees. He confirmed that in addition to the 24 people killed, 42 had been injured. Many of those injured are children.
“The bomber attacked at one of the busiest times of the day…There were traffic jams with people going to work and to the university and schools. Many of the shops had just opened,” Mujahed told reporters.
The attack took place in a small neighbourhood in the western region of Kabul.
The minibus was carrying several employees from the Mines and Petroleum Ministry. Mujahed said that the minibus was completely destroyed in the attack, as well as nearby shops and cars.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack today, in a statement to local media.
This is the second attack on the Mines and Petroleum Ministry’s employees. In a similar attack last year, a suicide bomber targeted a bus carrying employees from the Mines and Petroleum Ministry, killing several people.
The neighbourhood where the attack took place is home to many prominent political figures, and has become a regular target of the Taliban over the last few years.
In June, a suicide attack in the same neighbourhood cost the life of Shiite Muslim cleric, Ramazan Hussainzada.
While it has been confirmed that the victims were employees of the Mines and Petroleum Ministry, the Taliban claim that the victims were part of the Afghan Intelligence Service, which was the intended target. The Taliban said that they had spent two months ‘shadowing’ these members before carrying out the attack.
Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani, strongly condemned the attack, and the Afghan Interior Ministry called it a “criminal act against humanity.”
Image credit: Soldiers cordon off crime scene in Kabul (2017) [online image] sourced on 24 July 2017 at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-blast-idUSKBN1A9067?il=0
