KABUL, Feb 27 (AFP) - A Taliban suicide bomb attack that targeted guesthouses in Kabul on Friday, killing 16 people including Westerners and Indians, was one of the deadliest attacks on foreigners in the Afghan capital.
It was the third major attack on Indians in Kabul in less than two years, and drew strong condemnation from the country's Foreign Minister S.M Krishna.
"India strongly condemns the attack. This is the third attack on Indian officials and interests in Afghanistan in the past 20 months," he said, referring to two previous car bomb attacks on its embassy in Kabul.
An Indian foreign ministry official confirmed nine Indians, including embassy officials, had died in the attack, launched by three militants around dawn on Friday. The official said the toll "could be more".
Taliban suicide bombers targeted two guesthouses in central Kabul known to be frequented by foreigners.
One was known locally as the "Indian guesthouse," and was occupied by Indian doctors and paramedics working at a Kabul hospital funded by New Delhi, an Indian embassy official said.
Also killed were a French film director and an Italian who worked as an adviser to the Rome government.
The attack was launched around dawn when militants armed with guns and explosives targeted the Park Residence and the smaller Aria guesthouse on a nearby side street in Kabul's commercial district of Shar-I-Naw.
"The first explosion took place in front of the Aria... targeting mostly doctors. Subsequently two terrorists, one wearing a suicide vest, entered the Park Residence," said Kabul police chief General Abdul Rahman Rahman.
After a shootout with the attackers, police stormed into a room where one bomber detonated his explosives, killing three police officers, Rahman said.
The second bomber was killed by police, he added.
The Italian man was killed after giving information by telephone to Afghan police that enabled four other Italians to be evacuated to safety, police said.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the dead man was a diplomatic adviser to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon led the international outrage. "The Secretary General strongly condemns the attacks that took place in Kabul this morning," a UN statement said.
India has been heavily involved in reconstruction and aid efforts in war-torn Afghanistan, extending more than one billion dollars in assistance since the fall of the Taliban regime in November 2001.
Suicide bomber kills three in Pakistan: police
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Feb 27, (AFP) - Three people were killed and more than 20 injured on Saturday when a suicide bomber rammed a van packed with explosives into a police station in northwest Pakistan, police said.
"The attacker detonated his pick-up van at the gate of the main police station in Karak town" of North West Frontier Province, local police chief Sajid Mohmand told AFP. "Two policemen and one civilian were killed."
At least 26 people were wounded, including 21 policemen, he added. |
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