44 dead, hundreds wounded in lethal wave of Kabul bombings

Share This Information on:

Eight more fatalities were confirmed Saturday from a barrage of
bombings in Kabul, taking the toll to 44 in the deadliest day in the
Afghan capital since the NATO combat mission ended in December.

The explosions on Friday, which devastated buildings
and overwhelmed hospitals with hundreds of casualties,
were the first major militant assaults on Kabul since the
announcement of Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s death.

In the first attack, a powerful truck bomb tore through
the centre of Kabul just after midnight on Friday, killing
15 civilians and wounding 240 others.

The Taliban distanced themselves from the bombing which
struck near a Kabul military base — as they usually do
in attacks that result in a large number of civilian
casualties.


Less than 24 hours later, at least 20 people were killed
when a suicide attacker dressed in police uniform blew
himself up at the entrance of Kabul Police Academy.

The Taliban were quick to claim responsibility for that
attack, which marked a serious breach of security at a
premier training institute for Afghan security forces.
Explosions and gunfire also erupted when Camp
Integrity, a US special forces base in Kabul, came
under attack late Friday, killing nine people.
“One Resolute Support (NATO) service member and
eight Resolute Support contracted civilians were killed,”
a NATO statement said without revealing their
nationalities.

Military jets were heard flying over the centre of Kabul
shortly after the Camp Integrity explosions.
The carnage underscored the volatile security situation in
Afghanistan amid a faltering peace process with the
Taliban as Afghan forces face their first summer fighting
season without full NATO support.

Friday’s bombings were the first major attacks after
Mullah Akhtar Mansour was last week named as the
new Taliban chief in an acrimonious power transition
after the insurgents confirmed the death of longtime
leader Mullah Omar.

– ‘Capable, potent and operational’ –
Experts say the escalating violence demonstrates Mullah
Mansour’s attempt to boost his image among Taliban
cadres and drive attention away from internal divisions
over his leadership.

“The new wave of attacks is a tactic by the Taliban’s
new leadership to show they are capable, potent and
operational,” said security analyst Abdul Hadi Khaled.
“The demise of Mullah Omar divided the movement and
affected the morale of their ground fighters. Hitting
Kabul with a wave of powerful attacks is a way of
showcasing their strength.”

On Friday evening, a suicide attacker dressed in police
uniform blew himself up at the entrance of Kabul Police
Academy, killing at least 20 Afghan cadets who were
returning after their two-day weekend.
The bomber managed to place himself in a queue as
police trainees were waiting to be searched before
entering the academy, said a senior Afghan intelligence
official, requesting anonymity.

The official put the toll at 20 dead and 20 wounded.
Another police official confirmed that toll while a third
senior security source said 25 cadets were killed.
Anguished relatives of cadets gathered near the academy,
which was cordoned off by heavily-armed security
officials as ambulances with wailing sirens rushed to the
scene.

The academy in west Kabul is a premier training
institution for police forces in Afghanistan, with between
2,000 and 3,000 cadets graduating every year.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban — who
were toppled from power in the 2001 US invasion of
Afghanistan — told AFP the insurgent group was
behind the attack.

Earlier Friday, a truck packed with explosives
detonated near an army base in the neighbourhood of
Shah Shaheed, rattling homes across the city, ripping off
the facades of buildings and leaving scattered piles of
rubble.

The force of the explosion just after midnight created an
enormous crater in the road, around 10 metres (30 feet)
deep, and destroyed the boundary wall of the base,
although no military casualties were reported.
That attack left 15 dead and 240 wounded, with women
and children among those injured, according to deputy
presidential spokesman Sayed Zafar Hashemi.
Soldiers erected a security cordon around the military
base close to Shah Shaheed, a largely middle-class
civilian residential area with no major foreign presence.

It Will Only Take You Seconds To Share This Information on: