Attackers first struck at the center of Kabul shortly after midnight on Friday, detonating a truck bomb that killed at least 15 civilians and injured 240 others. It was the deadliest day in Kabul so far this year.
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No one has yet claimed responsibility for the explosion, though officials have indicated they believed the Taliban were behind it. The Taliban often do not claim to have organized attacks that kill large numbers of civilians, especially women and children.
The blasts, which took place last night, are the first major militant assaults on Kabul since the announcement of Taliban chief Mullah Omar’s death.
“There was an enormous explosion on the gate …(The gunfire) sounded prefer it got here from two totally different sides”, stated a Particular Forces member who was wounded when his workplace collapsed.
That followed separate attacks on an Afghan police academy and an Afghan army compound…
Camp Integrity is run by U.S. safety contractor Academi, which was often known as Blackwater earlier than being bought to buyers.
President Ashraf Ghani is due to hold a meeting of the National Security Council on Saturday to discuss the worsening situation and Afghan soldiers have been deployed across the capital to boost security.
Police said the attack was to the north of the airport, close to a residential area and several NATO and Afghan military bases.
It was part of a wave of bombings in the capital on Friday, which left more than 50 people dead and hundreds wounded.
Meanwhile, in a Saturday statement posted on twitter, Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman General Zahir Azimi announced that “in past 48 hours, 115 terrorists have been killed, 41 wounded, 5 detained, a number of armament seized and 12 [National Army] soldiers embraced martyrdom”.
An Afghan police officer walks at the site of a vehicle bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Mansour, who had previously been seen as open to peace talks, has now pledged to continue the insurgency that has killed and wounded thousands this year.
The statistics are a grim indicator of the expanding insurgency, with Afghan forces increasingly battling the militants on their own after NATO’s combat mission ended in December.
“The new wave of attacks is a tactic by the Taliban’s new leadership to show they are capable, potent and operational”, said security analyst Abdul Hadi Khaled. “I feel that was a bit over-optimistic”.
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An injured victim of the truck bomb attack Last week the Taliban released footage showing members of the group pledging allegiance to Mullah Akhtar Mansour.
