KABUL, Sept 30: A suicide bomber blew himself up in front of the interior ministry in the Afghan capital on Saturday, killing 12 people and wounding more than 50.
The Taliban said it had carried out the morning rush-hour attack with a remote-controlled bomb, but police insisted it was a suicide attack.
Police said the attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body at around 8:00 am (0330 GMT) in a crowd of Ministry of Interior (MOI) staff and civilians gathered at the compound’s gate for security checks.
“He wanted to enter the crowd that was waiting to enter the ministry,” ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.
“The police warned him to stop because he seemed suspicious. After being warned, he immediately blew himself up.”
Mr Bashary said 12 people were killed and 42 wounded.
The health ministry said the dead included a child and two women, and that more than 50 were wounded. Some had emergency surgery and three were in a serious condition, ministry director general Salam Jalali said.
There have been several suicide blasts in the heavily secured capital this year, putting residents on edge. One of the deadliest was a powerful car bomb on Sept 8 that killed two US soldiers and 14 civilians.
President Hamid Karzai condemned Saturday’s blast and called on the international community to “work with Afghanistan in stopping sanctuaries that raise, train and brainwash young people to become suicide attackers.”
Police said on Saturday that Taliban fighters had stormed a police post in a district of eastern Khost province around midnight on Friday, sparking a three-hour gun battle in which three rebels were killed.
BERLIN: German military aircraft are supporting Nato operations in southern Afghanistan, a defence ministry spokesman said on Saturday, confirming a report to appear in Monday’s edition of the weekly Der Spiegel.
The report came after Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung ruled out any possibility of transferring German troops from the north to help fight Taliban-led insurgency in the south.
Der Spiegel said German Transall transport aircraft and helicopters had made some 60 flights this year into the south.—AFP
