KABUL, July 7 -- At least 40 people were killed and 141 injured Monday in a powerful suicide blast near the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan's capital, Afghan officials said.
The explosion in the center of Kabul occurred around 8:30 a.m., ripping through a crowd of people waiting in line for visas at the Indian Embassy, said Ali Shah Paktiwal, chief of the criminal investigations division of the Afghan Interior Ministry. Authorities initially feared that the blast had hit the nearby headquarters of the Interior Ministry, but afterwards saw that the Indian diplomatic mission had been targeted.
Witnesses said dozens of bodies were strewn on the busy, tree-lined street in front of the building in central Kabul. The death toll was expected to rise.
With Afghan and NATO troops battling a resurgent Taliban, the suicide attack at the embassy was the second major militant-led strike against a government target in the center of the Afghan capital this year. In April, an assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai during a military parade killed three people, including a 10-year old boy. Karzai escaped unharmed.
Shortly after the attack, several military patrols arrived in the area to help secure the scene. A contingent of American soldiers among the military patrols opened fire on a car as it approached the embassy, wounding a woman and two men inside the vehicle.
Mirwais, a 40-year-old Afghan government employee, said he was waiting in line with his uncle when he was thrown to the ground by the deafening blast. "I was unconscious for three or for minutes and when I woke up I saw five dead bodies around me, several without legs," said Mirwais, who like many Afghans uses only one name.
The explosion damaged dozens of cars and several neighboring shops. The sound of the blast could be heard miles away. Witnesses said the explosion occurred as a car rammed the gates of the Indian Embassy and detonated.
Police and Interior Ministry officials gave conflicting numbers of casualties early Monday morning. The Associated Press said that Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Nikzad had put the death toll at 40, and said that as many as 9 police officers and embassy guards were among the dead. Several local hospitals were put on high alert as dozens of casualties began streaming in from the site of the attack. A list of 21 people injured and four killed in the blast was posted at Kabul's Emergency Hospital. Sayed Kabir Amiri, deputy director of Jamhuriat Hospital near the embassy, said late Monday morning that 50 wounded and 2 dead had been brought to there.
The attack sowed confusion across the city as relatives of the victims rushed to local emergency rooms to search for their loved ones. At the Emergency Hospital, Mohammed Sabeer, 45, said his 13-year-old daughter had been wounded in the attack, and he was unable to find his three other children after the blast. "I don't know where they are. I checked at another hospital and they weren't there. Now I want to go to all of the hospitals to see if they were taken there," Sabeer said.
The attack on the Indian Embassy prompted swift and sharp condemnation from the Afghan government. Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta rushed to the scene of the carnage soon after the bomb exploded. Indian Embassy officials said the Indian ambassador was not inside at the time of the explosion.
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When do you think this is going to end; when they get the point to stop killing each other? Over one man. I don't think that they will get the point, and stop killing each other until the next generation, if its even that short.
The explosion in the center of Kabul occurred around 8:30 a.m., ripping through a crowd of people waiting in line for visas at the Indian Embassy, said Ali Shah Paktiwal, chief of the criminal investigations division of the Afghan Interior Ministry. Authorities initially feared that the blast had hit the nearby headquarters of the Interior Ministry, but afterwards saw that the Indian diplomatic mission had been targeted.
Witnesses said dozens of bodies were strewn on the busy, tree-lined street in front of the building in central Kabul. The death toll was expected to rise.
With Afghan and NATO troops battling a resurgent Taliban, the suicide attack at the embassy was the second major militant-led strike against a government target in the center of the Afghan capital this year. In April, an assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai during a military parade killed three people, including a 10-year old boy. Karzai escaped unharmed.
Shortly after the attack, several military patrols arrived in the area to help secure the scene. A contingent of American soldiers among the military patrols opened fire on a car as it approached the embassy, wounding a woman and two men inside the vehicle.
Mirwais, a 40-year-old Afghan government employee, said he was waiting in line with his uncle when he was thrown to the ground by the deafening blast. "I was unconscious for three or for minutes and when I woke up I saw five dead bodies around me, several without legs," said Mirwais, who like many Afghans uses only one name.
The explosion damaged dozens of cars and several neighboring shops. The sound of the blast could be heard miles away. Witnesses said the explosion occurred as a car rammed the gates of the Indian Embassy and detonated.
Police and Interior Ministry officials gave conflicting numbers of casualties early Monday morning. The Associated Press said that Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Nikzad had put the death toll at 40, and said that as many as 9 police officers and embassy guards were among the dead. Several local hospitals were put on high alert as dozens of casualties began streaming in from the site of the attack. A list of 21 people injured and four killed in the blast was posted at Kabul's Emergency Hospital. Sayed Kabir Amiri, deputy director of Jamhuriat Hospital near the embassy, said late Monday morning that 50 wounded and 2 dead had been brought to there.
The attack sowed confusion across the city as relatives of the victims rushed to local emergency rooms to search for their loved ones. At the Emergency Hospital, Mohammed Sabeer, 45, said his 13-year-old daughter had been wounded in the attack, and he was unable to find his three other children after the blast. "I don't know where they are. I checked at another hospital and they weren't there. Now I want to go to all of the hospitals to see if they were taken there," Sabeer said.
The attack on the Indian Embassy prompted swift and sharp condemnation from the Afghan government. Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta rushed to the scene of the carnage soon after the bomb exploded. Indian Embassy officials said the Indian ambassador was not inside at the time of the explosion.
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When do you think this is going to end; when they get the point to stop killing each other? Over one man. I don't think that they will get the point, and stop killing each other until the next generation, if its even that short.
