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At least 41 killed in blast at Indian embassy in Kabul

A suicide car bomber rammed the Indian embassy in Kabul yesterday, killing 41 people, including two Indian envoys, in the Afghan capital’s deadliest attack since the 2001 fall of the Taliban, officials said.

The blast in the heart of the city scattered human flesh and severed limbs in front of the embassy compound, tearing down an outside security office and part of a wall. Charred and bloodied bodies littered a road outside.

“The toll of casualties we have so far is 41 martyred and 139 wounded. Among those killed are six policemen,” Afghan interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.

Many of the dead were Afghans collecting Indian visas.

The Indian embassy’s military attache and a political counselor were killed along with two Indian guards. The body of one of the diplomats was flung onto the roof of the embassy and only found hours later, officials said.

Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Jayan Prasad, who was not hurt in the explosion, said the suicide attacker rammed the diplomats’ vehicle as it was entering through the gates of the embassy compound.

“The embassy has been blown up badly, the outer structures,” another embassy official said on condition of anonymity. “We are walking on rubble.”

The nearby Indonesian embassy was also damaged and five Afghan security guards and two Indonesian diplomats were hurt, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was quoted as saying in Jakarta.

The blast was the worst in Kabul since the start of an Islamist insurgency launched after the Taliban were toppled from government by US-led forces for harboring the al-Qaeda network after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Taliban have carried out a wave of suicide bombings across the country in the past seven years, but a spokesman for the movement denied his group was involved in the Indian embassy attack.

“We have not done it,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said.

The militants have previously denied involvement in attacks with high civilian casualties but authorities often blame them, pointing to their record of suicide bombings.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai blamed “enemies” of the good relationship between Afghanistan and India, one of the country’s staunchest allies as the war-torn country battles the increasingly bloody Taliban insurgency.

Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta visited the embassy soon after the attack to show support, his spokesman said.
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