Two bombs hidden in a motorcycle and a car exploded inside an elite gated community linked to the family of Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday evening, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 70 near the southern city of Kandahar, an official said.
The blasts happened inside Aino Mina, a housing complex on the northern outskirts of the city that was developed in part by Mahmood Karzai, the president’s younger brother.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but striking inside a powerful symbol of wealth and influence would be a publicity coup for the Taliban insurgency.
Photo: AFP
Both the car bomb and the motorcycle were remotely detonated within minutes of each other while parked next to a restaurant area where families were dining, Kandahar Government spokesman Javeed Faisal said. He had earlier said there was only one blast.
Three police were among the dead, Faisal said, adding that an investigation is underway into how the explosives-laden vehicle slipped past the community’s heavy security.
Many of the dozens of wounded brought to Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar were in critical condition, Dr Samad Ahmadi said.
Aino Mina is home to thousands of Afghan government officials, businesspeople and other wealthy citizens who pay about US$90,000 for a three-bedroom house on grounds featuring parks, a jogging track, a football field and its own mosque. Residents have special identification badges and cars are typically searched before entering the gates.
Mahmood Karzai was one of the main investors in the project, promoted as a triumph of modernity in Kandahar, which is the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban insurgency. The Taliban imposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law when it led Afghanistan for five years, before they were ousted in the US-led invasion.
The Karzai clan itself is from Kandahar and another brother of the president, Ahmed Wali Karzai, was a powerful political figure there before being gunned down in 2011 by a bodyguard.
President Karzai’s office quickly condemned the attack, noting it was the second terrorist strike in a residential area in two days. On Thursday, a suicide car bomber hit a US convoy in a residential part of eastern Kabul, killing 15 people, including nine Afghan bystanders and six Americans. That attack was claimed by another militant movement, Hizb-e-Islami.
“Terrorists, by these acts that are un-Islamic and inhumane, are not the followers of any religion,” Karzai’s statement said.
Separately, motorcycle-riding gunmen reportedly shot dead a police chief who led an anti-Taliban campaign in western Afghanistan in front of his house, am official saod. Abdul Ghani was leaving his driveway in his car when the two raced up and opened fire in Farah Province.
Provincial spokesman Abdul Rahman Zhawandai said yesterday that Ghani was rushed to hospital after the attack on Friday night but died of his wounds.
Ghani had recently launched a crackdown against insurgents that resulted in the killing and capture of several Taliban leaders. Zhawandai said the Taliban retaliated to stop him.
Afghan security forces and government officials are targeted by the Taliban to weaken the government of Hamid Karzai ahead of the planned withdrawal of most international troops by the end of next year.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A retired US colonel behind a privately financed rocket launch site in the Dominican Republic sees the project as a response to China’s dominance of the space race in Latin America. Florida-based Launch on Demand is slated to begin building a US$600 million facility in a remote region near the border with Haiti late this year. The project is designed to meet surging demand for the heavy-lift rockets needed to put clusters of satellites into orbit. It is also an answer to China’s growing presence in the region, said CEO Burton Catledge, a former commander of the US Air Force’s 45th Operations
Germany is considering Australia’s Ghost Bat robot fighter as it looks to select a combat drone to modernize its air force, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said yesterday. Germany has said it wants to field hundreds of uncrewed fighter jets by 2029, and would make a decision soon as it considers a range of German, European and US projects developing so-called “collaborative combat aircraft.” Australia has said it will integrate the Ghost Bat, jointly developed by Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force, into its military after a successful weapons test last year. After inspecting the Ghost Bat in Queensland yesterday,
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RSS