- (AFP) - Up to 30 people were killed and 50 injured in
a massive car bomb explosion in a busy central district of Kabul, government
spokesman Omar Samad told a press conference here.
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- The attack is the biggest act of terrorism in post-Taliban
Afghanistan and comes just days before the September 9 anniversary of Northern
Alliance commander Ahmed Shah Masood's assassination and the anniversary
of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
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- One casualty of the blast, who was heavily bandaged,
told AFP that a station wagon had exploded near the ministry and the Spinzar
Hotel, and Wajdan said police believed the blast may have been a car bomb.
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- "We have found a number plate of the vehicle and
we are now trying to trace the owner," said Wajdan.
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- Another witness, Najibullah Aryan, said there had been
two explosions -- a smaller one followed by a much larger blast.
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- "I was coming out of the culture ministry when the
first blast went off," said Aryan. "I saw more than 20 people
lying on the ground."
-
- A spokesman for the International Security Assistance
Force (ISAF), commander Simon Ryan, said there had been a small blast first.
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- "Shortly afterwards a nearby car exploded. We are
aware of a number of explosions," he told the BBC.
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- Another ISAF spokesman said the blast went off near the
information and culture ministry just before 3:00 pm (1030 GMT).
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- Armed police sealed off roads around the area to the
public and the press and erected a special security cordon.
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- Five ambulances and ISAF troops were also at the site,
a busy market area in Pul-e-Baghmomi district.
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- Debris was scattered over a wide area. Witnesses said
most of those injured were shoppers and shopkeepers. Hundreds of bystanders
stood against shop walls watching rescue operations.
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- The blast is the latest in a series of explosions in
Kabul in recent weeks which have raised fresh fears over security.
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- One man was killed and three people wounded on September
1 when a device went off in a hand cart outside the former Soviet embassy.
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- An explosive device left in a rubbish bin outside the
United Nations' main guest house in Kabul also left one person injured
late last month.
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- A small bomb also exploded nearly three weeks ago outside
the communications ministry and another went off in a disused cinema in
the Kabul Hotel.
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- The Turkish commander of ISAF, Major General Akin Zorlu,
told reporters recently that renegade groups including followers of al-Qaeda
and the Taliban could be trying to spread fear in the Afghan capital.
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- Zorlu also said followers of the hardline former Afghan
prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar could also be trying to destabilise
the security situation in Kabul.
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- "The Taliban and al-Qaeda are seeking opportunities
to mount attacks to destabilise the situation and to prove that they are
still active," he told a press conference at ISAF's Kabul headquarters.
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- "Members of the fundamentalist party Hezb-i-Islami
of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are also seeking the same opportunities," he
said.
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- Earlier Thursday a military official in Kabul had told
AFP that security had been bolstered across the city in response to specific
terrorist threats.
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- The road leading to the German embassy was closed to
traffic and the main entry to ISAF headquarters, which lies opposite the
US embassy, was partially closed.
-
- The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said
the measures were not connected to next Monday's commemmoration of Masood's
death or September 11.
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