Kabul – Up to 50 people were killed and about 90 were injured in three attacks across Afghanistan, two of which were claimed by the Taliban, on a bloody Tuesday in the war-ravaged nation.
The Taliban claimed suicide bombings in central Kabul and in southern Helmand province, and the UAE’s ambassador to Afghanistan was injured in a separate blast at a governor’s house in Kandahar province.
The bombings in Kabul targeted the Afghan parliament, killing at least 26 people and wounding another 43, officials said.
“The first suicide bomber, a walk-in, blew himself up at the gate of the parliament building,” said Sediq Sediqi, an Interior Ministry spokesman.
A bus carrying parliamentary staff was struck by the bomber, killing and wounding many of the parliament’s civilian staff as they were leaving for home.
File picture – Afghanistan parliament
Sediqi said a car bomb subsequently went off after security forces gathered in the area to tend to the victims of the first blast.
The United States strongly condemned the bombing, saying an attack on parliamentary facilities and lawmakers “is clearly an assault on Afghanistan’s efforts to build democratic institutions.”
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the bombing had targeted a minibus belonging to the Afghan spy agency.
Meanwhile, another suicide bombing in the city of Lashkargah in southern Helmand province earlier in the day killed seven people and wounded six others.
The Taliban also claimed responsibility for that attack, saying it had targeted an Afghan spy agency facility.
Lashkargah, the capital of the most embattled province in southern Afghanistan, has repeatedly been the target of Taliban operations. Aside from the city, all districts in Helmand are heavily contested or fully controlled by Taliban militants.
Hours after the Kabul bombing, a further 11 people were killed and 8 others were wounded, including the governor of southern Kandahar and the UAE’s ambassador to Afghanistan, when an explosion went off inside the governor’s home.
The UAE’s official WAM news agency confirmed the incident, quoting the Foreign Ministry as saying that the ambassador and “a number of Emirati diplomats who were accompanying him” were injured in a “heinous terrorist attack.”
No group has so far claimed responsibility for that attack.
The US also condemned the attacks in Helmand privince and in Kandahar.
-dpa
