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Central Kabul hit by massive truck bomb Kabul truck bomb kills at least 10 and injures close to 200
(about 1 hour later)
A powerful truck bomb has torn through the centre of the Afghan capital Kabul, killing at least eight people and wounding over a hundred, police and health ministry officials said. At least 10 people were killed and close to 200 injured when a powerful truck bomb exploded in Kabul early on Friday, according to Afghan police.
“A truck bomb detonated close to an army compound,” said the Kabul police chief, Abdul Rahman Rahimi. The blast, which rattled windows across the city, several kilometres away, targeted an Afghan National Army base in Shah Shaheed, a rundown residential neighbourhood not far from the city centre.
At least eight bodies had been counted by the police, Rahimi said, while 128 people had been wounded in the blast early on Friday morning. Due to the densely constructed apartment blocks in the area, many of the injuries were caused by shattered glass, which covered the scene far beyond the police barriers which cordoned off the blast site.
Dozens were wounded by debris and glass shattering in the heavily populated area. Cars parked on roads in the vicinity of the blast were damaged for at least a hundred metres, said a Reuters witness. At the site after the explosion, Sediq, a young factory worker, told the Guardian he had been sleeping in his office opposite the army base when the explosion woke him up about 1am. He had been cut in the side of the head but otherwise emerged unscathed.
It was an unusually powerful blast in a city that is frequently targeted by the Taliban and other militants seeking to destabilise the Afghan government. Related: Suicide bomb kills six in first Taliban attack since new leader announced
The capital is heavily guarded by the army and police. While magnet bombs or suicide attacks have become a weekly occurrence, large truck bombs have rarely penetrated the city’s outskirts. The more seriously injured were taken to Emergency hospital in the centre of the city, which treats the majority of war wounded in the capital.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which sent shockwaves across the centre of the capital and ripped through homes and shops. A Western security source said that the target was probably a compound used by Afghan intelligence officials in the area and that as many as 15 people had been killed. Shortly before dawn, Ekramuddin, a 50-year-old construction worker, was waiting outside for news of his three family members who had been admitted with injuries from splintered glass. His family had been asleep in their home opposite the site of the attack, and were woken up by the explosion, he said.
An official at the emergency hospital in Kabul said the facility had been flooded with patients, including many women and children. Most were arriving on foot, the official said, and were being treated for superficial wounds. He said doctors had already started operating on the more severe cases. Kabul’s police chief, Abdul Rahman Rahimi, told reporters at the blast site that eight people had been killed. After a visit to the hospital he adjusted the death toll to 10.
The war between the foreign-backed government and the Taliban has intensified since the Nato combat mission ended last year and most foreign troops were withdrawn. The medical coordinator of the hospital, Luca Radaelli, said it had received over 90 casualties. “It’s all a mess inside,” he said.
Clashes are reported every day and civilians are frequently caught in crossfire. Almost 5,000 civilians have been wounded or killed in the first six months of 2015 as a result of the conflict, according to the United Nations. Hours after the blast, nobody had yet claimed responsibility. However, earlier on Thursday, a Taliban suicide truck bomber killed six people in Pul-i-Alam, the capital of Logar province, south of Kabul.
The attacks come the day after a new UN report documented record high civilian casualties in the Afghan war. According to the UN, 1,591 civilians were killed and 3,329 wounded in the first six months of 2015, the highest numbers on record since the beginning of the war.
The attacks are also the first serious single incidents of violence in Afghanistan after the announcement last week of the death of Taliban leader Mullah Omar. The proclamation of Omar’s death has caused turbulence in the Taliban, and prompted the insurgents to postpone a second round of reconciliation talks, scheduled for last week.