The death toll from this weekend’s deadly Taliban bombing attack in Kabul has reached 103, with 235 reported wounded, an official said Sunday.
Afghan Interior Minister Wais Ahmad Barmak said at least five policemen were among the dead, and at least 30 policemen were among the wounded.
Barmak said two ambulances were involved in the attack, according to surveillance videos seen by security officials. The first one drove alongside the second one into the Jamhuriat hospital parking lot after drivers spoke with police. It went through the first security checkpoint, then drove away.
The second one waited for 20 minutes inside the hospital parking lot, then drove to the second security checkpoint, which leads up to the old Interior Ministry building, the European Union headquarters, as well the Indian embassy. The vehicle was then detonated.
According to DPA’s report, it is not yet clear which of these facilities was the target of the suicide bombing. However, Taliban militants in a statement said the bomber had detonated his vehicle in the assembly area of the old Interior Ministry building.
During the press conference, the head of the Afghan spy agency said it is not possible to stop 100 per cent of attacks. “This one slipped” by, he said.
Naweed Hamkar, a doctor at Jamhuriat hospital, who was operating on a patient when the attack took place, said the entire emergency ward of the hospital was filled with the bodies and wounded.
Hamkar said that, when he came out of the operating room, there was no space inside the emergency ward, due to the broken glass and scarce equipment due to the wave of the blast.
“It was a horrific scene. I was crying. But then I told myself, if I lost control, then who would treat all these patients?”
Naweed said he saw people who were completely burned, others missing body parts, shrapnel to the eye and mouth, just lying there.
“There were doctors and nurses who had been injured by broken pieces of glass, but were still operating on patients.”
Afghanistan’s presidency said Sunday would be a national mourning day, after a deadly series of attacks in the past nine days that left at least 125 people dead and at least 235 others wounded.
As ordered by the president, the Afghan flag is to fly at half-mast across the country and at diplomatic missions abroad.
“To pay tribute to the victims of latest terrorist attacks in Kabul, Nangarhar and Kandahar; the Afghan government announces today as a national day of mourning,” read a tweet by the presidential palace.
The attack capped an especially violent week for the war-torn country.
A week ago, 20 civilians were killed in an attack by the Taliban in a 17-hour siege of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul.
On Wednesday, in Nangarhar, an Islamic State attack on Save the Children, an international aid organisation, left at least six people dead and 25 others wounded.
And in Kandahar on Friday, a suicide bomber used an explosive-laden vehicle to target a police vehicle that left four police dead and 10 civilians injured.
Saturday’s bombing was the biggest attack to hit the Afghan capital after a May truck-bombing near the German embassy took the lives of 150 people and injured more than 400 others.
In a strategic review in August, Afghanistan was reclassified by the UN – from a post-conflict country to one with an active conflict.
With war intensifying across the country, Afghan security forces are increasingly overwhelmed, contributing to the recent decision by the US and NATO to increase the number of international troops in Afghanistan.
and then