A huge suicide car bomb struck near the Indian embassy in Kabul yesterday, killing at least 12 people and injuring 83 in the latest in a wave of deadly attacks on the Afghan capital, officials said.
Windows were blown from dozens of shops and survivors staggered around the bloodied streets in the heavily fortified central diplomatic area, after the fifth suicide strike in Kabul in two months.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the blast bore all the hallmarks of the Taliban, who are battling to topple the Western-backed government.
“As a result of a suicide car bomb attack today, 12 people were martyred and 83 were wounded. Most of the casualties are civilians,” Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.
In a statement, Afghan President Hamid Karzai called the perpetrators “barbaric” and said: “This is a terrorist attack, and an obvious attack on defenseless Afghan civilians.”
Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said in New Delhi that his country’s fortress-like embassy was “obviously” the intended target.
Rao said no Indians were killed in the blast, but three members of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police force who were guarding the embassy had received shrapnel injuries.
A similar suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul in July last year killed 60 people and was blamed on Taliban militants linked to Pakistan’s intelligence agencies, sending tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad soaring.
That attack, which remains the deadliest in Kabul, led to stringent new security measures such as concrete blast barriers at the embassy. Rao said those had limited the impact of yesterday’s explosion.
The bomber detonated his explosives-laden car near the corner of the embassy compound on Interior Ministry Road at about 8:30am, sending plumes of smoke into the air in a blast that echoed throughout the capital.
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