Kabul, (AFP) A third massive explosion shook central Kabul
hours after a Taliban double bombing killed at least 24
people and left 91 others wounded, in another day of carnage in the
Afghan capital.
Authorities said they were trying to pin down the location of the
third blast and there was no immediate claim of responsibility from
any militant group.
It jolted the capital just hours after high-level officials, including
an army general, were killed in the twin blasts near the defence
ministry, as the Taliban ramp up their nationwide offensive against
the US-backed government.
A suicide bomber struck the area just minutes after the first explosion,
in an assault apparently aimed at inflicting mass casualties as officials
left the ministry after work.
"The first explosion occurred on a bridge near the defence ministry.
The second struck just as soldiers, policemen and civilians hurried
to help the victims," defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish told AFP.
Ambulances rushed to the scene, littered with disfigured bodies
and charred debris. But there were so many bodies that some had to
be taken to hospitals in car boots and the back of police pickup trucks.
Firemen, meanwhile, raced to retrieve some bodies thrown into the
Kabul River by the intensity of the first blast on the bridge.
Health ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh said the attack left 24
people dead and 91 others wounded, some of them seriously, adding
the casualties could rise still further.
The Italian-run Emergency Hospital in Kabul, which was overwhelmed
with wounded patients, tweeted that four people died on arrival.
The interior ministry initially said the attack was carried out
by two suicide bombers on foot. But officials later said the first
bomb was detonated remotely while the second was triggered by a suicide bomber.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter that the defence
ministry was the object of the first attack, while police were targeted
in the second.
President Ashraf Ghani strongly condemned the carnage and offered
condolences to the families of the victims.
"The enemies of Afghanistan have lost their ability to fight the
security and defence forces of the country," Ghani said in a statement.
"That is why they are attacking highways, cities, mosques, schools
and common people."
The attack took place more than a week after 16 people were killed
when militants stormed the American University of Afghanistan in
Kabul, in a nearly 10-hour raid that prompted anguished pleas for
help from trapped students.
Explosions and gunfire rocked the campus in that attack, which came
just weeks after two university professors -- an American and an
Australian -- were kidnapped at gunpoint near the school.
Their whereabouts are still unknown and no group so far has publicly
claimed responsibility for the abductions.
The uptick in violence in the capital comes as the Taliban escalate
nationwide attacks, underscoring the worsening security situation
since NATO forces ended their combat mission at the end of 2014