KABUL – A large bomb exploded outside the Indian embassy in central Kabul yesterday, killing 17 people and wounding 76, in the latest of a series of militant attacks on diplomatic and government buildings in the Afghan capital.
Violence has reached its worst levels in the eight-year war as Taliban insurgents have extended fighting to previously secure areas, including Kabul. Attacks in the capital had been rare until the start of last year.
Since 2008, there have been about a dozen major attacks in the city, including raids on the German embassy, the headquarters for the Nato-led force, the information ministry and the justice ministry buildings, as well as other targets near the US embassy, presidential palace and airport.
Yesterday’s blast tore through a market building across the street from the heavily fortified Indian embassy compound, leaving rubble and debris strewn across the road, where the Afghan interior ministry is also located.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying the target had been the embassy. It was the second big attack on the Indian mission in 15 months. India said all its embassy staff were safe.
In July last year, the embassy was the scene of the war’s deadliest attack on the capital. On that occasion, a Taliban suicide car bomber killed 58 people, including two senior Indian diplomats, and wounded a further 141.
“I believe the suicide bomb was directed against the embassy because the suicide bomber came up to the outside perimeter wall of the embassy with a car loaded with explosives – obviously with the aim of targeting the embassy,” Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao told reporters in India.
Ms Rao said the blast was similar in size to the 2008 attack but that measures taken since then to secure the embassy had worked effectively in protecting its embassy staff. The road, also home to the interior ministry and the Indonesian embassy, had been closed to traffic since the 2008 attack and was only reopened in the last few weeks. A large concrete blast barrier was erected down the centre of the road.
Indian authorities blamed the Pakistani intelligence service for last year’s blast.
Fifteen civilians and two policemen were killed in the latest attack, the interior ministry said. A further 76 people, including 63 civilians and 13 policemen were wounded, it said. – (Reuters)