Death toll rises to 16 in Kabul blast, over 100 hurt
Afghan troops kill 5 gunmen trying to storm area near Green Village in a ‘complex attack’ after a tractor explodes near its wall
A massive blast in a residential part of Kabul killed at least 16 people, officials said on Tuesday, following yet another Taliban atack that came as the insurgents and Washington try to finalise a withdrawal deal.
US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad was in the Afghan capital to discuss the proposed deal -- which would see the US withdraw troops in return for Taliban security guarantees -- when the Monday bombing happened.
Local television footage showed a massive crater near crumbled blast walls, twisted metal where buildings once stood and the charred remains of a petrol station that had caught fire and blown up as a result of the atack.
Interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said the blast was caused by a tractor packed with explosives that had been parked alongside a wall by Green Village, a large fortified compound that housesaidagenciesandinternationalorganisations.
Five gunmen then tried to storm the area in a “complex atack,” but Afghan security forces shot and killed them before they got far into the compound, Rahimi said.
In addition to the 16 killed, 119 were wounded, he added, noting that all the victims were civilians.
The bombing was the third major Taliban attack in as many days -- and the violence is likely to continue, Taliban expert Rahimullah Yusufzai said.
The insurgents are convinced it was their military strength which has forced Washington to open talks with them on a withdrawal, he said.
“This is the weapon in their hands and they will keep on using it until they gain their objectives,” he said.
Residents in the area around Green Village were furious that their neighbourhood, which has been targeted before, had been hit once again and blamed the assault on the nearby international presence. “All our rooms have been destroyed, and I don’t know where to go now,” a woman victim in a local hospital said.
“My two daughters have been injured and are in the hospital. This explosion ruined our lives.”
Locals set tyres on fire, sending plumes of thick, acrid smoke into the morning sky, and closed off a main road next to the scene of the atack.
The sound of gunfire could be heard Monday morningbutbytheaternoonthesituationappeared to have calmed. “We want these foreigners to move outofourneighbourhood,”residentabduljamilsaid.
“This is not the first time we suffer because of them. We don’t want them here anymore.”
The Taliban claimed Monday’s atack, which was condemned by President Ashraf Ghani and came as Afghanistan’s main TV station, Tolo News, was broadcasting an interview with Khalilzad.
The Afghan-born envoy, who has spent about a year negotiating with the Taliban, told Tolo the US would pull troops from five bases across Afghanistan under a final deal if the Taliban honour their end of the bargain.
“We have agreed that if the conditions proceed according to the agreement, we will leave within 135 days five bases in which we are present now,” Khalilzad said.
Meanwile, Nato’s alliance chief said on Tuesday that it “fully supports” American efforts to find peace in Afghanistan, ater talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on a deal taking shape with the Taliban.
Pompeo met Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels “Great discussion with @ Secpompeo on current security issues. #NATO fully supports efforts to achieve peace in #Afghanistan. I condemn recent horrific atacks & NATO remains commited to supporting Afghan forces,” Stoltenberg tweeted.
Pompeo’s talks with Nato came as part of a two-day visit to Brussels, where he also met the new EU leadership including commission president-elect Ursula von der Leyen and incoming EU Council president Charles Michel.
Micheltweetedatertheirmeetingthattheyhad discussed “shared values and common interests.”
The most recent previous atack on Green Village was in January, when a powerful truck bomb killed at least four people and wounded more than 100 others.
Green Village is separate from the nearby Green Zone, a walled-off and heavily fortified part of Kabul that is home to several embassies including the US and British missions.
The Pentagon gives the official number of US troops in Afghanistan as 14,000 -- though the real number is thought to be a bit less -- and President Donald Trump last week said America would maintain a permanent presence of about 8,600 troops initially, even ater a deal is reached with the Taliban.