Two Killed by Suicide Bomber in Kabul
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September 27, 2011 TheFreshOutlook  |
A suicide bomber who filled his car full of explosives before ploughing it into a police van has killed two.
Following Sunday’s attack on the US embassy, Kabul was once again rocked by violence after a suicide bomber targeted a police van.
Provincial Government spokesperson Daoud Ahmadi reported that the incident on Tuesday has left two civilians dead, including a young boy, as well as wounding 26 others.
The suicide bomber, who packed his car full of explosives before driving it into the parked police van, was allegedly waiting at the gates of the police headquarters in Lashkar Gah, before carrying out the attack.
The force of the collision between the two vehicles triggered the explosives and caused the blast, said provincial Police Chief Kamaluddin Sherzai.
Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, confirmed the group accepts responsibility for this morning’s attack, speaking just hours after a statement was released rejecting claims of any direct or indirect ties between the Taliban and the Pakistani government.
The statement denied the presence of any militant bases in Pakistan, as well as claiming the Taliban’s insurgency “is at its strongest and unified more than it has been at any other stage”.
Their rebuke comes a week after a surprisingly blunt statement from America’s top military officer, Admiral Mike Mullan, who accused Pakistan of having an allegiance with the militants via their ally group, the Haqqani network, who he described as a “veritable arm” of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency; an elite part of the Pakistan army.
However, the Taliban maintain that Jalaluddin Haqqani, the Haqqani network’s founder, remains a prominent member and leader of the Taliban.
Despite this, the US still continue with accusations that the group is being backed by the Pakistani government, a spokesman for Nato forces in Afghanistan, Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, also commented: “We have no credible intelligence indicating that the Haqqani network has eliminated their operating safe havens in Pakistan … They continue to plan and execute operations from across the border.”
This morning’s attack was the latest of three major attacks in the Afghan capital, including the assassination last week of a former Afghan president, Burhanuddin Rabbani.
By Laura Beard
[Image courtesy of isafmedia]
