Kabul blast death toll rises to 12
A suicide bomber killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 40, many just arriving for work, in a busy pedestrian alley next to Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry today, officials said.
The blast was the second major suicide attack in Kabul this month, underscoring the dangers creeping into the once relatively calm capital as militants step up attacks across the country.
Interior ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said the bombing killed 12 people, including two women and a child, and wounded 42.
Dr Salam Jalali, a public health ministry official, said 54 had been hurt. He said the wounded had been taken to six different Kabul hospitals, complicating officials’ efforts to keep track of the casualties.
The explosion happened just before 8am near a narrow dirt road where employees and civilians pass through a security gate. Shops, roadside photographers, and men who fill out Interior Ministry paperwork for illiterate Afghans give the busy area a cross-section of commerce and government workers.
The top UN official in the country condemned the “callous attack against innocent Afghans who were simply going to work”. Saturday is a work day in Afghanistan.
“It is wrong for any conflict to be played out in a civilian arena with such wanton disregard for so many innocent lives,” said Tom Koenigs, the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
Bashary said the suicide attacker had been acting suspiciously, then had tried to get near a gathering of people just beyond a police checkpoint.
“The police warned him to stop, and then he detonated himself,” said Bashary.
A witness said he saw the bomber run from police, who had tried to search him.
“The bomber ran into the area (past the checkpoint), and the policeman took out his gun – this all happened very fast – and then the guy detonated himself,” said Ahmed Ramin, 18. “We saw lots of people killed and injured on the streets.”
The blast shattered nearby shops’ windows, overturned tables and hurled them to the backs of rooms. At least three shops were destroyed. Ambulances rushed to and from the bomb scene, which police cordoned off.
Militants have been stepping up assaults, some using suicide attacks and roadside bombs, across Afghanistan in the last several months.
Earlier this month a suicide car bomber rammed a US military convoy in Kabul, killing 16 people including two American soldiers.
A suicide bomber killed 18 more people outside the Helmand provincial governor’s compound in the town of Lashkar Gah on Tuesday.
Major Luke Knittig, a spokesman for Nato’s international security force that controls much of Afghanistan, said the latest attack shows the insurgents “recognise the significance of this nation’s capital”.
“They recognise we have them under pressure in their strongholds in the south and the east, so this does fit into, sadly, what we expected somewhat to see, them resorting to this kind of tactic, hitting softer targets and getting the additional significance attached to hitting the nations’ capital,” he said.
Shohib, 13, a worker in a nearby shop, said he was washing his hands in the back of the store when the explosion went off.
“When I looked into the shop I saw six people killed or injured there,” said Shohib, who uses a single name. “When I came outside the shop, I saw many other people killed and injured on the street.”
Knittig said there was a recognition of a rising threat in the capital, and that citizens needed to be more vigilant.
“But look at all the commerce and activities (in Kabul),” Knittig said. “There’s a little bit of why the insurgents try to carry out attacks in the capital.”
