KABUL: On Wednesday, a Chinese team was scheduled to meet near the Afghan foreign ministry; the suicide bomber’s explosion there resulted in more than 20 injuries, according to Taliban officials and witnesses.
Since retaking control in 2021, the Taliban assert that security has improved; however, there have been numerous bombings and attacks, many of which were claimed by the local Daesh affiliate.
When the explosion occurred on Wednesday, an AFP crew was conducting an interview inside the communications Afghan ministry next door.
A company driver who was standing outside witnessed a man stroll by while carrying a rucksack and a gun over his shoulder before the man detonated himself.
He drove by my car, and a tremendous explosion followed, according to Jamshed Karimi.
“I witnessed the man detonating himself.”
The explosion was confirmed by Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran, “which regrettably resulted in deaths.”
He tweeted, “Security teams have arrived at the location.”
In the wake of the incident, bodies marked with the Taliban flag lay strewn on the road outside the ministry’s high-walled compound.
A few bystanders rushed to help while several hurt people writhed on the ground and yelled for rescue.
The Ministry
The ministry itself didn’t seem to have suffered much harm.
“Furthermore, According to Muhajer Farahi, deputy minister of media and culture, it was reported that a Chinese delegation was supposed to be present in the Foreign Ministry today, however, it remains uncertain if they were in fact present at the time of the bomb.”
When gunmen raided a Kabul hotel beloved by Chinese businessmen last month, at least five Chinese nationals suffered injuries.
There was an assault on Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul in December. Pakistan called the attack an “assassination attempt” against their ambassador. The attack was claimed by Daesh.
In an attack on a mosque on the grounds of the interior ministry in Kabul in October, four people were murdered and 25 others were injured. According to survivors, the attack was a suicide bomber.
In September, there was a separate attack that was claimed by Daesh. In this attack, a suicide bombing occurred outside the Russian embassy, resulting in the deaths of two embassy employees.
The Taliban has taken control of Afghanistan. Since they took control, there have been a number of attacks which resulted in the death and injury of hundreds of individuals, particularly members of minority communities. These attacks are believed to be targeted.
The local branch of Daesh in Afghanistan is called Daesh-Khorasan. The term Khorasan is a historical name for a large region which encompasses Central Asia, Iran and India. The goal of Daesh-Khorasan is to dominate this region.
However the Taliban and Daesh-Khorasan both follow a strict form of Sunni Islam. The goal of Daesh-Khorasan is to establish a global “caliphate.” The objective of the Taliban is to govern an independent Afghanistan.