Residents worried as Taliban claims latest Kabul attack

The armed group has staged a series of assaults in Afghanistan since foreign troops ended combat operations last year.

A wounded man is being carried from the site of a blast near the Kabul international airport, Afghanistan
A lorry packed with explosives drove up to the armoured gates of the complex before being detonated, smashing windows and sending glass flying and badly damaging nearby houses [Ahmad Masood/Reuters]

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a compound for foreign contractors that killed at least one civilian and wounded 34 others.

Officials said there did not appear to be any casualties inside the compound.

The attack on Monday came hours after another suicide bomber blew himself up in the latest in a series of attacks in the Afghan capital.


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“We live in constant fear and have nowhere to escape to,” Ibrahimi, a Kabul resident who witnessed the attack, told Al Jazeera. 

“The government needs to step up their game and prove themselves stronger than the Taliban.”

The bomber who targeted the residential compound was wearing a suicide vest and driving a lorry packed with explosives, police said, adding that he detonated the vest when seen by police as he approached.

According to a Kabul hospital, nine children were among the wounded in the attack. 

“The attacks are merciless. We are the most affected by these attacks. Our children die and no one is here to ask about them or us,” Massoud, another Kabul resident, told Al Jazeera. 

“It’s violence everywhere and this is the kind of enviornment our children are growing up in. Either the Taliban should take over completely or the government has to prevent these attacks and create a better environment for us.” 

The Taliban has stepped up attacks since foreign troops ended combat operations last year and has claimed a series of assaults on foreign targets in and around Kabul.

Most of the casualties, though, have been Afghan civilians.


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On Friday, three people including a child were killed and at least 15 others injured when a suicide car bombing targeted a Kabul restaurant popular with Afghan officials and foreign diplomats.

Earlier on Monday, a suicide bomber blew himself up near a police checkpoint without causing any other casualties.

Monday’s attacks happened as special forces in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif fought to suppress a small group of fighters holding out after an attack on the Indian consulate on Sunday night.

There has not yet been any claim of responsibility for that incident. 

President Ashraf Ghani has announced that officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States and China will gather in Pakistan on January 11 for a meeting aimed at laying the ground for talks with the Taliban.

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies