Eight people were killed as a wave of suicide explosions rocked a British cultural center in Kabul yesterday, a public holiday marking Afghanistan’s independence from Britain in 1919.
Six blasts, claimed by the Taliban, struck the British Council offices in Kabul amid bursts of heavy gunfire that began at about 5:45am and continued for more than eight hours. A fresh explosion hit the area at 10am.
The British Council is an official organization part-funded by London that promotes cultural relations in offices around the world.
Photo: Reuters
Police said at least the first two blasts were the work of suicide bombers.
“Eight people, mostly police, are killed and 10 others injured,” interior ministry spokesman Siddiq Siddiqui said.
Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai earlier said the dead included two policemen and two street cleaners who were working nearby when the attackers struck.
The British embassy and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan confirmed that the target was the British Council.
“I condemn this despicable attack on the British Council building in Kabul earlier today,” British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said in London.
“I can confirm that all British nationals affected are now safe. It is due to the presence of mind of the staff involved and our good security measures that no British nationals were hurt,” he said.
Shortly before 2:30pm, British Ambassador to Kabul William Patey said all insurgents involved in an attack had been killed.
He said some of those inside the compound had hidden in a safe room, including a South African who worked there and a British security guard.
A photographer at the scene saw British, US and French forces there, while a reporter witnessed two large ISAF armored vehicles arriving as helicopters circled.
It was not immediately clear if the helicopters were Afghan or foreign.
An ISAF spokesman, Captain Justin Brockhoff, said the force had sent a “limited number” of troops to the scene.
“We have a very small contribution to the Afghan-led response,” he said. Afghan security forces are in overall control of security in Kabul.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed the militant group was responsible for the attack, which he said was to mark the nation’s independence day.
He said the attackers’ target was the British Council and a UN guest house. However, a spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Dan McNorton, denied any of its sites was involved.
“Taliban mujahidin stormed these two compounds and heavy fighting is going on with the Afghan police,” Mujahid said. “Today is our independence day from Britain. They recognized our independence 92 years ago — today’s attack was marking that day. Now the British have invaded our country again and they will recognize our independence day again.”
Britain is the second-largest provider of troops to the international military effort fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan after the US, with around 9,500 forces mainly in the south.
At the scene was the burning wreckage of a car that had rammed into the wall of the British Council compound and exploded. Ambulances and the emergency services shuttled back and forth rescuing injured people.
“I was asleep when the sound of a heavy explosion woke me up,” said eyewitness Mohammad Aber, who lives across the road from the building. “I went to the roof. I saw a car was on fire, and there was suddenly a second explosion, then the shooting started.”
The British Council’s Web site says its work in Kabul is mainly focused on providing support for Afghans wanting to learn English, “for which there is an overwhelming demand.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing