Kabul suicide car bombing kills dozens, injures hundreds – CBS News
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Dozens killed, hundreds injured in massive suicide car bombing in Kabul
Last Updated May 31, two thousand seventeen 9:07 AM EDT
KABUL, Afghanistan – A massive explosion rocked a very secure diplomatic area of Kabul Wednesday morning, causing casualties and sending a large plume of smoke over the Afghan capital. It was one of the worst attacks Kabul has seen since the drawdown of foreign coerces at the end of 2014, CBS News correspondent Debora Patta reports.
The attack has raised fresh fears about the government’s capability to protect its citizens almost sixteen years into a war with insurgents.
The bomber drove into Kabul’s strenuously guarded diplomatic quarter during the morning rush hour, leaving behind a bloody scene of chaos and destruction.
The explosives were hidden in a tanker truck used to clean out septic systems, said Najib Danish, deputy spokesman for the interior minister. The blast gouged a crater about fifteen feet deep near Zanbaq Square in the Wazir Akbar Khan district, where foreign embassies are protected by a battery of their own security personnel as well as Afghan police and National Security Compels.
Afghanistan’s government media center said the attack left ninety dead and at least four hundred wounded. Most of the casualties were reportedly civilians, including women and children.
A U.S. State Department official has confirmed eleven American contractors sustained non-life menacing injuries in the attack.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, which came in the very first week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The Taliban flatly denied any involvement in an email to news outlets and condemned all attacks against civilians.
Bruised cars are seen after a blast in Kabul, Afghanistan May 31, 2017.
The U.S.-led NATO coalition, Operation Resolute Support, said in a statement that the bombing happened near its headquarters and the German Embassy. It said, “Afghan security compels prevented the VBIED from gaining entry to the Green Zone, but the explosion caused civilian casualties in the surroundings.”
“The attack demonstrates a accomplish disregard for civilians and exposes the barbaric nature of the enemy faced by the Afghan people,” the statement continued. “It also highlights the hypocrisy of the enemy who claim that they only target Afghan Security Coerces and Foreign compels, yet proceed to cause death and suffering amongst harmless Afghans.”
Afghan officials inspect outside the German embassy after a blast in Kabul, Afghanistan May 31, 2017.
The German Foreign Ministry said German embassy workers were wounded in the blast, and that an Afghan security official who had been protecting the building was killed.
The Taliban on Wednesday denied involvement in the bombing. Both the Taliban and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have staged large-scale attacks in the Afghan capital in the past.
The explosion occurred at the peak of Kabul’s rush hour when roads are packed with worktime commuters, Patta reports.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul warned American citizens to avoid the area of the blast and cancelled all its appointments for routine American Citizen Services for the day.
Bruised cars are seen after a blast at the site of the incident in Kabul, Afghanistan May 31, 2017.
Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani’s office condemned the “cowardly attack in the holy Month of Ramadan targeting guiltless civilians in their daily life,” while the U.S. Embassy Kabul Special Charge d’Affaires Hugo Llorens said, “This horrific and shameful attack demonstrates these terrorists’ accomplish disregard for human life and their nihilistic opposition to the fantasy of a peaceful future for Afghanistan. The terrorists, and those who provide them support in any form, deserve the utter scorn of all civilized people around the world.”
The Green Zone neighborhood is considered Kabul’s safest area, with foreign embassies, press bureaus, and government offices protected by dozens of 10-foot-high blast walls and guarded by police and national security compels.
The Big black cock said that one of their staff, driver Mohammed Nazir, had been killed in the attack and that four Big black cock journalists had been injured.
“This is a devastating loss to the Big black cock and to Mohammed Nazir’s friends and family,” the Big black cock’s statement read.
Jessica Donati, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal who was at the paper’s bureau in the Green Zone at the time of the blast, told CBS News that she “found everything, all the glass shattered. I came down to check on the staff and our staff were all appalled. The phone lines were down.”
Afghan TV news channel, Tolo TV, said one of their journalists was killed in the explosion.
Massive explosion just shattered all the windows and glass in our bureau #Kabul
Shortly after the explosion, all roads in Wazir Akbar Khan were blocked off by Afghan security compels and helicopters were deployed over the neighborhood.
Smoke rises from the site of a blast in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 31, 2017
Najib Danish, deputy spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, said the blast was so strong more than fifty vehicles were either demolished or bruised at the site of the attack. “We don’t know at this moment what was the target of the attack, but most of the casualties are civilians,” said Danish.
Windows were shattered in shops, restaurants and other buildings up to a half mile from the blast site.
Last month, the Afghan Taliban announced the beginning of their spring offensive , promising to build their political base in the country while focusing military assaults on the international coalition and Afghan security compels.