Afghan Capital Kabul Hit by Worst Bombing in Two Months
Taliban attacks Kabul again, at least 24 reported dead.
(Bloomberg) -- A suicide car bomb killed at least 24 people and wounded more than 40 others in Kabul on Monday, the worst attack on the Afghan capital since a blast killed over 100 people almost two months ago.
The attack hit a minibus carrying government workers in the Western neighborhood of Dehbori, according to a statement from the office of President Ashraf Ghani. The blast was detonated at about 6:45 a.m. local time near the residence of Mohammad Mohaqeq, a deputy to the country’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, said Najib Danish, an Interior Ministry spokesman. Mohaqeq wasn’t hurt and police are investigating, Danish said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had targeted two minibuses carrying employees of an Afghan intelligence agency unit, the group’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed wrote in an emailed statement. He claimed 37 people died in the blast.
Ghani “strongly condemned” the attack in a tweet sent from his office, calling it an “appalling and cowardly attack on civilians.”
The bombing is the worst in Kabul since a truck laden with explosives killed at least 150 people near the diplomatic Green Zone on May 31. While nobody has claimed that attack, Ghani’s administration blamed the Haqqani Network and Pakistan’s main military intelligence agency.
The Taliban has stepped up its offensive across the country and is gaining ground. The insurgent group took over two districts on Sunday in the north following a fierce battle with Afghan forces. It controls or contests 40 percent or more than 400 Afghan districts, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, a U.S. watchdog.
U.S. President Donald Trump last month delegated full authority to Defense Secretary James Mattis to determine troop levels in Afghanistan. U.S. generals in charge of forces in the region in recent months recommended adding as many as 5,000 troops to about 8,400 already there to train, advise and assist Afghan forces in fighting terrorism.
A United Nations mid-year report said civilian casualties hit record levels with 1,662 civilians killed and 3,581 wounded across Afghanistan -- a 2 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Eltaf Najafizada in Kabul at enajafizada1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.net, Chris Kay