Scores of fuel trucks set ablaze in Kabul

Taliban spokesperon Zabihullah Mujahid says that fighters belonging to the group had carried out the destruction.

KABUL: A Taliban bomb attack on the outskirts of Kabul set fire to scores of fuel trucks that the militants claimed were supplying foreign troops in Afghanistan, officials said on Saturday.

The tankers were set ablaze as they sat in a parking lot waiting to enter the Afghan capital, which is currently gripped by a fraud dispute over presidential elections last month.

Taliban insurgents fighting a 13-year-war against US-led forces in Afghanistan often attack western supply convoys and claimed responsibility for the late Friday night attack.

“At around 10:30 pm dozens of fuel tankers belonging to private companies caught fire,” Kabul police spokesperson Hashmat Stanikzai told AFP. “No one can get close to them since the fire is still raging at the scene,” he added, saying that there had been no casualties.

Kabul police director Gul Aghan Hashimi said a magnetic bomb had been used in the attack while a Nato-led International Security Assistance Forces spokesperson said they were investigating whether the fuel was intended for foreign troops.

The Afghan interior ministry said initial investigations found that 200 trucks had been damaged. The incident took place in Chawk-e Arghandi and comes as the Taliban steps up attacks with Nato forces due to complete their withdrawal from the country by the end of the year.

Taliban spokesperon Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that fighters belonging to the group had carried out the destruction.

“The Islamic Emirate’s Mujahideen attacked a supply terminal and a base of the US-Nato invaders in Arghandi area of Paghman district last night at 11pm, burning down as many as 600 vehicles loaded with supplies and fuel,” he said in the statement.

He further claimed that trucks, tankers and other vehicles were planted with magnets and plastic bombs which were detonated, triggering a huge fire that engulfed the entire terminal.

Also Friday, ISAF said a rocket attack at the United States’ main military base at Bagram Airfield had resulted in “minor damages to equipment and one building”.

It came just a day after Taliban insurgents fired rockets into Kabul airport, destroying the Afghan president’s parked helicopter and damaging three other choppers.

On Wednesday, a Taliban suicide bomber in Kabul killed eight military officers travelling on a military bus.

The attacks underlined security fears in the capital which has been relatively peaceful since the June 14 presidential runoff between Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani.


Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2014.