KABUL: A suicide bomber on Wednesday killed at least 26 people, many of them teenagers, after detonating a device among a crowd of people in Kabul who were celebrating Nauroz, officials said.

There were distressing scenes at the hospital opposite the blast site where grief-stricken relatives screamed as they clutched and hugged the bloodied bodies of their loved ones, on what is normally a day of celebration for Afghan families.

The militant Islamic State (IS) group’s local franchise in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for the assault in the heavily Shia neighbourhood — the fifth suicide bombing in the Afghan capital in recent weeks — via the messaging app Telegram.

Another 18 people were wounded in the blast, interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said, “all of them civilians”.

There were fears the figure could rise, however, with the health ministry giving a higher toll of 31 people killed and 65 wounded. Afghan officials often give conflicting tolls in the wake of attacks.

The bomber, who was on foot, detonated his device in front of Kabul University and the hospital that was opposite, Rahimi said. The blast could be heard several kilometres away. Witnesses told police the bomb had been hidden inside a drum carried by the attacker, Kabul police spokesman Basir Mujahid said.

But Rahimi said an investigation indicated he had been wearing a suicide vest.

The blast occurred less than 200 metres from the Karte Sakhi shrine where many Afghans gather every year to mark Nauroz, which is the traditional Persian new year holiday but is considered un-Islamic by some Muslims.

The bomber had been unable to reach it due to heavy security for Nauroz, so he “detonated himself among teenagers returning from there”, Kabul police chief Mohammad Daud Amin told Tolo News.

One of the wounded told Tolo from his hospital bed that immediately before the blast he had heard drumbeats as people danced to music in the street.

Bloodstains could be seen among scattered shoes and other belongings at the site of the attack.

Outside the hospital morgue, a visibly distressed man knelt next to several bodies, cursing the Afghan government, before he was pulled away by a relative and a medical worker.

Another body lay on a stretcher in the hospital compound, a pair of red, white and blue tennis shoes poking out from underneath a covering. IS, which regularly targets Shias in an attempt to stir up sectarian violence in Sunni-majority Afghanistan, has attacked the same shrine once before.

In October 2016 IS gunmen killed 18 people gathered to mark Ashura.

President Ashraf Ghani, whose government has been repeatedly lambasted for failing to protect its citizens, condemned the latest attack in a statement as a “crime against humanity”.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2018