A vehicle – marked to protect lives, itself protected by Geneva convention, was packed with explosives and exploded in diplomatic enclave of Afghan capital killing over 95 people. Over 158 others have been listed as injured, many in critical condition.
An AFP reported “lots of dead and wounded” civilians in the nearby Jamhuriat hospital where staff struggled was overwhelmed by bloodied men, women and children lying in corridors.
The driver passed through one checkpoint by telling police he was escorting a patient to the hospital, Aj Jazeera reported, and detonated the explosives at the second. The massive explosion caused tremors, felt several kilometers away. Huge plume of smoke was seen rising atop the Kabul skyline. Reports indeicate that some structures in the general vicinity of the explosion also collapsed.
Afghanistan’s Chief Executive, Abdullah Abdullah, called the attack as “insane, inhuman, heinous and a warcrime”
Terrorist attack on civilians & hospital in #Kabul is insane, inhuman, heinous and a warcrime. We will bring its perpetrators to justice & take necessary measures to avoid such barbarism in the future. Int Community must take further action against state sponsored terrorism.
— Dr. Abdullah (@afgexecutive) January 27, 2018
Taliban has taken responsibility of the attack and said that it targeted Afghan Police. However the attack itself was on densely packed civilian population with very powerful explosive killing innocent civilians by hundreds. All missions and embassies in the area have reported their staff to be safe.
This is a new low even for Taliban to use a universally acclaimed life saving instrument – an ambulance – as weapon of attack on civilians. Pakistan’s foriegn office too was forced to condem the attack. “We express deep grief and sorrow at the loss of precious human lives in this terrorist attack in which a number of people have also been reportedly injured,” a statement issued by the Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) said. The afghan interior ministry spokesman blamed the the Taliban-affiliated, Pakistan supported Haqqani network, which has been behind many of the biggest attacks on urban targets in Afghanistan.
