One killed, 13 wounded in Kabul suicide attack, according to Afghan officials

Officials in the Afghan capital reported on Monday that a suicide bomber killed at least one person and wounded 13 in an attack on a road near Kabul airport, barely two weeks after a major Taliban assault in the city. A police officer who was present at the scene said the suicide bomber walked up to a white pickup truck and detonated explosives he was wearing. A minibus was also destroyed in the explosion that completely destroyed the windows of nearby shops.

The head of Kabul police, Abdul Rahman Rahimi, said that the aim of the attack in an overwhelmingly civilian area had been to create fear among Afghans. “Enemies of humanity detonated a suicide car bomb in front of a madrassa where children were learning the Koran and Islamic studies. It shows that they are enemies of mosques, God, and the Koran,” he said.

The ministry of public health said 18 children, many of whom had been studying in a nearby madrassa, or religious school, were among the injured. Most of the children got hurt by flying glass from broken windows. The windows of nearby shops were smashed and debris was scattered across the street.

The Taliban said in a statement that the suicide attack had targeted a minibus it said was used to transport Americans and Europeans from a military base to the airport, killing 10 foreigners and three of their Afghan associates.

The suicide bombing followed a series of attacks this month claimed by Taliban insurgents, including an assault on a Spanish embassy guesthouse in the capital that began on Dec. 11 and a suicide bombing near Bagram air base that killed six American troops last week. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, which comes as Taliban insurgents step up attacks on government and foreign targets. “The bombing occurred near Kabul airport. We are finding out more details,” Gul Agha Rohani, Kabul deputy police chief, told AFP.

Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Twitter: “One civilian killed and [four] civilians wounded in today’s car bomb explosion.” The Afghan Taliban’s main spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said on Twitter the suicide attack had targeted a convoy of foreign forces and had caused heavy casualties. A NATO spokesman in Kabul said there was no indication that any member of the mission had been hit.

The attack took place just a day after Pakistan’s powerful army chief General Raheel Sharif visited Kabul in a bid to prepare the ground for fresh peace talks with the Taliban. Afghan forces are currently battling to push out Taliban insurgents who seized large swathes of the key opium-rich district of Sangin in southern Helmand province.

In August, a deadly suicide bombing hit a checkpoint on the way to an airport entrance. Last year, gunmen stormed a nearby building in an effort to attack the the military side of the airport. Earlier this month, around 50 people were killed in a Taliban attack at a market bazaar and a school near the airport in the southern city of Kandahar.