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Taliban kill 7 in Kabul after Obama visit
The Taliban struck back less than two hours after President Barack Obama left Afghanistan on Wednesday, targeting a foreigners’ housing compound with a suicide car bomb and militants disguised as women in an assault that killed at least seven people.
It was the second major assault in Kabul in less than three weeks and highlighted the Taliban’s continued ability to strike in the heavily guarded capital even when security had been tightened for Obama’s visit and Wednesday’s anniversary of the killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in neighbouring Pakistan.
The violence that erupted about 90 minutes after his departure was a stark reminder of the difficult task still ahead for Afghan troops as they work to secure their country after US and other foreign troops end their combat mission following nearly a decade at war.
The attack began with a suicide car bomb near the gate of the privately guarded compound, which sits off Jalalabad road — one of the main thoroughfares out of the city, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said.
Kabul Deputy Police Chief Daoud Amin said those killed in the blast included four people in a station wagon that was driving past the area, a passer-by and a Nepalese security guard. He didn’t have the identity of the seventh person killed.
The Interior Ministry said 17 other people were wounded, many Afghan children on their way to school. Karzai’s office said three Taliban took part in the attack: the suicide car bomber and two other gunmen who stormed the compound disguised in burqas — the head-to-toe robes worn by conservative Afghan women.
The Taliban struck back less than two hours after President Barack Obama left Afghanistan on Wednesday, targeting a foreigners’ housing compound with a suicide car bomb and militants disguised as women in an assault that killed at least seven people.
It was the second major assault in Kabul in less than three weeks and highlighted the Taliban’s continued ability to strike in the heavily guarded capital even when security had been tightened for Obama’s visit and Wednesday’s anniversary of the killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in neighbouring Pakistan.
The violence that erupted about 90 minutes after his departure was a stark reminder of the difficult task still ahead for Afghan troops as they work to secure their country after US and other foreign troops end their combat mission following nearly a decade at war.
The attack began with a suicide car bomb near the gate of the privately guarded compound, which sits off Jalalabad road — one of the main thoroughfares out of the city, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said.
Kabul Deputy Police Chief Daoud Amin said those killed in the blast included four people in a station wagon that was driving past the area, a passer-by and a Nepalese security guard. He didn’t have the identity of the seventh person killed.
The Interior Ministry said 17 other people were wounded, many Afghan children on their way to school. Karzai’s office said three Taliban took part in the attack: the suicide car bomber and two other gunmen who stormed the compound disguised in burqas — the head-to-toe robes worn by conservative Afghan women.
