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Suicide Bombing in Kabul Kills at Least 8 2 Large Bombs Shake Kabul
(about 9 hours later)
KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide attacker detonated a truck bomb in the center of the Afghan capital on Friday, killing at least eight people and wounding more than 100, according to Afghan officials. KABUL, Afghanistan — A truck bomb believed to be driven by a suicide attacker blew up in the center of Afghanistan’s capital on Friday, killing 15 people and wounding hundreds, according to senior Afghan officials.
It was the first terrorist attack in Kabul since reports surfaced that the nominal leaders of two major insurgent groupings operating in the country had been dead for months or years. It was the first terrorist attack in Kabul since reports surfaced that the nominal leaders of two major Afghan insurgent groups had been dead for months or years. And hours later, on Friday night, another large bomb exploded, this time outside the Kabul Police Academy, according to a police spokesman, Ebadullah Karimi. Mr. Karimi said he did not yet know about casualties.
The bombing took place around 1 a.m. in the Shah Shaheed neighborhood, close to several bases used by Afghan and international forces, according to Ebadullah Karimi, a spokesman for the Kabul police. He said that eight people had been killed and 130 wounded and that all the victims were civilians. Dozens of homes in the area were destroyed. The first blast occurred around 1 a.m. in the Shah Shaheed neighborhood, close to several bases used by Afghan and international forces, and it leveled an entire strip of shops and dozens of homes and businesses, causing damage and injuries more than half a mile away. The shock waves set off car alarms throughout Kabul.
A spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Health, Muhammad Ismail Kawoosy, also said that eight civilians had been killed, but that 400 people had been wounded badly enough to warrant medical treatment. According to Sayed Zafar Hashimi, the deputy spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani, the final death toll was 15, with 240 people wounded, including 47 women and 33 children. Most of those wounds were not serious, but 35 to 40 people were injured badly enough that they will need to remain hospitalized for several days, Mr. Hashimi said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but huge suicide bombings targeting civilians in Kabul have been a trademark of the Haqqani network, whose leader Jalaluddin Haqqani died in December, according to American officials and a senior member of the group. Afghan officials recently imprisoned the leader’s son Anas Haqqani, which had been thought to explain the lack of any major, Haqqani-style attacks in Kabul so far this summer. President Ashraf Ghani, who had just returned from a trip to Germany where he had surgery for a leg injury, visited the wounded in the hospital to express condolences and promise his government’s help. His spokesman, Mr. Hashimi, called it a “cowardly terrorist attack against civilians aimed at diverting attention from the tensions brewing between the leadership of the Taliban.”
Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, of which the Haqqani network is a part, has said that Jalaluddin Haqqani is alive. But Mr. Mujahid’s credibility has been called into question, because he long denied that Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s main leader, was dead. Mr. Mujahid maintained those denials until shortly before the group acknowledged last week that Mullah Omar had died in early 2013. Mr. Hashimi was referring to an apparent struggle for succession both within the Taliban and within the allied Haqqani network.
Shukria Barakzai, a prominent member of Parliament from Kabul, said it was likely that the number of casualties in the bombing on Friday would increase greatly, because of the size of the bomb and the residential nature of the area. “Obviously many women and children are also victims of this explosion,” she said. Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Taliban, said in a telephone interview that he was still investigating who was responsible for the bombing, and that the insurgents would not claim responsibility “at the moment, until our investigation has been thoroughly completed.”
A United Nations report released last week said that civilian casualties in Afghanistan remained at record highs, with women and children a growing percentage of the victims. The United Nations’ human rights office said that insurgents were responsible for 70 percent of the civilian casualties, with more than half that number caused by suicide bombings. Huge suicide bombings in Kabul have been a trademark of the Haqqani network, whose leader Jalaluddin Haqqani was said by some American officials and a senior member of the group to have died in December. Afghan officials recently imprisoned the leader’s son Anas Haqqani, which had been thought to explain the lack of any major, Haqqani-style attacks in Kabul so far this summer.
The Taliban have rejected those findings. But the report, which covered the first six months of 2015, noted that the Taliban’s own statements during that period publicly claimed responsibility for 239 episodes that caused more than 1,000 civilian casualties. Mr. Mujahid, who generally speaks on behalf of the Haqqani network as well as the mainstream Taliban, last week denied the reports of Jalaluddin Haqqani’s death. The Taliban then released statements attributed to Jalaluddin, but not audio or video evidence.
An official of the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence service, who was at the scene of the attack and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the intelligence compound of the Ministry of Defense was the apparent target but that attackers failed to get close enough to do much damage. In addition, because of the late hour, few ministry employees were at work, so many of the victims were civilians. Mr. Mujahid’s credibility, however, has been called into question. He long denied that Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s main leader, was dead. Mr. Mujahid maintained those denials until shortly before the group acknowledged last week that Mullah Omar had died in early 2013. Over the past two years, Mr. Mujahid was the frequent conduit of messages attributed to Mr. Omar while dead.
An official of the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence service, who was at the scene of the attack and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the military intelligence compound of the Ministry of Defense was the apparent target, but that the attacker failed to get close enough to do much damage. In addition, because of the late hour, few ministry employees were at work, so nearly all of the victims were civilians, aside from one security guard at the scene.
A United Nations report released Wednesday said that civilian casualties in Afghanistan remained at record highs, with women and children a growing percentage of the victims. The United Nation’s human rights office said that insurgents were responsible for 70 percent of the civilian casualties, with more than half that number caused by suicide bombings.
The Taliban have rejected those findings. But the United Nations report, which covered the first six months of 2015, noted that the Taliban’s own statements during that period publicly claimed responsibility for 239 episodes that caused more than 1,000 civilian casualties.