Huge car bomb near Kabul’s guesthouse injures 1 person
Print Edition
AN Afghan official said yesterday a car bombing near a foreign guesthouse in central Kabul has wounded one person.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the massive explosion that shook buildings in the area yesterday. A Taliban spokesman said a suicide bomber targeted the guesthouse in Shir Pur, an area with embassies and other diplomatic buildings that seen to be one of the safer parts of the Afghan capital.
Deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Ayub Salangi said security forces were searching homes in the area. There were no additional details.
At least three insurgents appeared to be involved in the attack, a police official said.
A Taliban spokesman said the attack targeted “an invader’s guest house”.
At least seven people were brought to a hospital operated by the aid group Emergency, located around 700 meters from the Spanish embassy in the city’s affluent Sherpur area, according to a tweet from the organization, but there were no other reports of damage or casualties.
Sherpur is home to several foreign non-government organizations and residences of senior government officials, including former warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, Afghanistan’s first vice-president.
The attack was the latest in a series against foreign targets in Kabul as the Taliban have stepped up their insurgency following the withdrawal of international forces from combat operations last year.
The blast, which interrupted several months of relative calm in the Afghan capital, came after President Ashraf Ghani returned from a regional peace conference in Islamabad aimed at reviving stalled peace talks with Taliban militants.
It followed an insurgent attack on an airport complex in the southern city of Kandahar that killed 50 civilians and security forces personnel, and which was only suppressed after more than a day of fighting.
Security officials cordoned off the streets and ambulances with wailing sirens were seen rushing to the scene.
Eleven suicide attackers on Tuesday breached the high-security complex which also houses a joint NATO-Afghan base, taking families hostage and triggering pitched firefights with soldiers.
As the country grappled with the aftermath of the attack, its spy chief on Thursday resigned from his post, laying bare disagreements with Ghani over his diplomatic outreach to Pakistan.
The resignation of Rahmatullah Nabil on Thursday highlights the domestic backlash Ghani faces over his attempts to repair strained relations with Islamabad, long blamed for nurturing the Taliban.
But Ghani has staked considerable political capital in advocating bonhomie with the neighbour, saying it was a necessary partner in restarting peace talks aimed at ending Afghanistan’s long war.
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