Spiralling unrest: Up to 35 dead as four blasts rock Kabul

20 killed in suicide attack on police academy; Taliban claim responsibility

KABUL:

A total of four blasts rocked the Afghan capital on Friday, killing at least 35 people and injuring hundreds more.

At least 20 Afghan cadets were killed when a suicide attacker blew himself up at the entrance of Kabul Police Academy, officials said.

“The attacker was wearing police uniform... when he detonated his explosives, 20 cadets were killed and 20 more were wounded,” a senior Afghan intelligence official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

The bomber managed to place himself in a queue as police trainees were waiting to be searched before entering the academy, the official said.

The Taliban were behind the suicide attack, the spokesman for the group, Zabihullah Mujahid, told AFP.

Another police official confirmed that toll while a third senior security source told AFP that 25 cadets were killed in the attack.

The bombing comes less than 24 hours after a truck bomb tore through central Kabul, killing 15 civilians and wounding 240 others in the first major attack in the Afghan capital since the announcement of Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s death.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. A truck packed with explosives detonated just after midnight near an army base in the neighbourhood of Shah Shaheed, rattling homes across the city, ripping off the facades of buildings and leaving scattered piles of rubble.

The force of the explosion created an enormous crater in the road, around 10 metres deep, and destroyed the boundary wall of the base, although no military casualties were reported.

The health ministry said the number of wounded could run even higher, with most suffering injuries from flying glass.

Kabul police chief General Abdul Rahman Rahimi said officials were searching for anyone trapped under the mangled concrete debris.

Two other blasts took place near the Kabul airport which was followed by gunfire.

“Another one with small arms fire,” a Western security source in the area of the attack said. The fourth explosion targeted an area close to coalition bases and Afghan government buildings.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2015.