Afghanistan violence: 24 dead in string of blasts in Kabul

Taliban claim double bombing near defence ministry

KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: A huge explosion followed by gunfire hit the centre of Kabul late Monday hours after a twin bombing near the Afghan defence ministry left 24 people dead and over 90 injured. There was no immediate word on the cause of the third blast or on any casualties.

The coordinated attack during the rush hours in a crowded area in central Kabul was claimed by the Taliban. High-level officials, including an army general, were among those killed in the carnage, as the Taliban ramp up their nationwide offensive against the US-backed government.

"The first explosion occurred on a bridge near the defence ministry. The second struck just as soldiers, policemen and civilians hurried to help the victims," defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish told AFP.

Ambulances rushed to the scene, littered with disfigured bodies and charred debris. But there were so many bodies that some had to be taken to hospitals in car boots and the back of police pickup trucks.

Firemen, meanwhile, raced to retrieve some bodies thrown into the Kabul River by the intensity of the first blast on the bridge.

Health ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh said the attack left 24 people dead and 91 others wounded, some of them critically injured, adding the casualties could rise still further.

The Italian-run Emergency Hospital in Kabul, which was overwhelmed with wounded patients, tweeted that four people died on arrival.

The interior ministry initially said the attack was carried out by two suicide bombers on foot. But officials later said the first bomb was detonated remotely while the second was triggered by a suicide bomber.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter that the defence ministry was the object of the first attack, while police were targeted in the second.

President Ashraf Ghani strongly condemned the carnage and offered condolences to the families of the victims.

"The enemies of Afghanistan have lost their ability to fight the security and defence forces of the country," Ghani said in a statement.

"That is why they are attacking highways, cities, mosques, schools and common people."

Pakistan strongly condemned the twin attacks on Kabul, with the Foreign Office extending condolences to the government and people of Afghanistan and the families who lost their loved ones in the attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2016.