A suicide bomber walked into the offices of the Kabul police chief yesterday and detonated his explosives, killing a senior aide in an attack that highlighted poor security in the Afghan capital.
Kabul Police Chief Zahir Zahir told reporters that the attacker had evaded checkpoints at the force’s heavily guarded headquarters by wearing a police uniform.
“I’m fine, but one of my best officers, my chief of staff Yassin Khan, was killed and six were wounded,” Zahir said, speaking just an hour after surviving the apparent assassination attempt.
“It was a suicide bomber with police uniform on. As he was stopped trying to enter my room, he detonated his explosives,” Zahir said. “We are investigating how he entered the police headquarters.”
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack.
“This morning at around 9am, a martyrdom attack was carried out against the enemy which killed a lot of them,” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahi said on Twitter. “The attack was carried out ... inside Kabul police HQ [headquarters] while foreign advisers and police were meeting.”
There were no reports of foreign casualties and the Taliban often exaggerate death tolls after attacks.
Kabul is regularly hit by Taliban bombings, with the military, police and government officials among those targeted despite heightened security with multiple checkpoints, blast walls and armed guards.
Another Taliban bomb exploded earlier yesterday in the capital, causing no casualties.
In the last major blast in Kabul, four Afghan soldiers were killed and about a dozen people wounded by a roadside remote-controlled bomb targeting an Afghan army bus that insurgents exploded on Oct. 21.
Afghan soldiers and police have taken on the lead role in thwarting the Taliban, but national stability could be at risk as US-led NATO troops pull out.
This year alone, more than 4,600 Afghan soldiers and police have been killed in fighting, according to recent US figures.
The NATO troops end their 13-year combat mission in Afghanistan next month, with about 12,500 soldiers to stay on into next year on a new training and support mission.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who came to power in September, has said that Afghan forces are ready to impose security.
This summer, the Taliban launched several offensives during a prolonged political deadlock in Kabul as Ghani and his rival, now Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, both claimed to have won a fraud-mired presidential election.
The two men eventually signed a power-sharing agreement, with Abdullah appointed to the new position of chief executive created to resolve the stalemate
Efforts to start peace talks with the Taliban collapsed acrimoniously last year, though the new administration may make fresh moves to open negotiations and bring the war to an end.
Ghani used his inauguration speech in late September to call for insurgents to join peace talks.
“Any problems that they have, they should tell us, we will find a solution,” he said.
The number of NATO troops in Afghanistan peaked at 130,000 in 2010, but is now less than 34,000.
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