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Rush-hour explosion in Kabul kills scores

KABUL — A Taliban suicide bomb and gun assault on a government security building during yesterday morning rush hour in central Kabul killed at least 28 people and wounded more than 320, in the deadliest single attack in the Afghan capital since 2011.

KABUL — A Taliban suicide bomb and gun assault on a government security building during yesterday morning rush hour in central Kabul killed at least 28 people and wounded more than 320, in the deadliest single attack in the Afghan capital since 2011.

President Ashraf Ghani condemned the assault “in the strongest possible terms”, he said in a statement from the presidential palace, located only a few hundred metres away from the scene of the blast.

The insurgency led by the Afghan Taliban has gained strength since the withdrawal of most international combat troops at the end of 2014, and the Islamist group is believed to be stronger than at any point since it was driven from power by United States-backed forces in 2001.

With nerves on edge in Kabul, a second explosion hit the city in the evening but no serious casualties were reported from the blast, which was caused by an improvised device, according to Interior Minister spokesman Sediq Sediqqi.

Police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said civilians and members of the Afghan security forces were among those killed and wounded in the morning blast, when a suicide car-bomber blew himself up outside the wall of a National Directorate of Security office, an elite security force that provides protection to senior government officials. He said just one militant had entered the compound, and that he had been gunned down in less than half an hour.

It was the worst single militant strike in Kabul since 2011, when about 60 people died in a suicide blast outside a mosque, and will reinforce concerns in Afghanistan and the West that the country is being dragged into a worsening spiral of violence.

A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack. The statement said that “a truck full of explosives” had been detonated before claiming its fighters entered the compound.

Yesterday’s attack came a week after the Taliban announced its annual spring offensive, vowing large-scale attacks in the 15th year of its war against the US-backed Afghan government.

The chief executive of the Afghan government, Mr Abdullah Abdullah, visited the site of the attack, saying it showed “the depth of barbarity and terror of Afghanistan’s enemies”.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent his condolences to the victims and their families following the attack. He strongly condemned the assault, saying that “there is no justification whatsoever for attacking civilian people as well as security people”.

The US Embassy said the attack underscored the harm the Taliban continued to inflict on the Afghan people. “Afghanistan deserves peace and security, not attacks that victimise parents taking their children to school, workers on their morning commute, and people who have stepped forward to help defend their fellow citizens,” it said in a statement.

Eyewitnesses described the mayhem after the attack. One of the wounded, Mr Sadiqullah, 25, said more than a dozen vehicles near him had been badly damaged, and their drivers and passengers injured or killed. “I saw people lying on the road hopelessly — some screaming, others silently giving out their last breath and some already dead.”

Mr Sadiqullah, who runs a tea shop and, like many Afghans, goes by one name, said the blast was “so strong that I felt it struck me or my shop personally”.

Mr Muhammad Amir, 13, said the explosion scattered all the items in the auto repair shop where he works.

“My uncle got a head wound, and my brother is still missing,” he said. “I hope he has survived the attack, like I did.” AGENCIES

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