A suicide bomber blew himself up on Wednesday afternoon at the entrance to the Afghan Foreign Ministry in Kabul, where a Chinese delegation was expected during the day, killing at least 20 people, according to official sources and witnesses.
“I saw around 20 to 25 casualties. I don’t know how many of them were dead or injured,” testified an AFP driver, Jamshed Karimi.
“I was waiting in the car when I saw a man with a Kalashnikov over his shoulder and carrying a bag. He passed by my car and after a few seconds there was a loud bang. I saw this man blow himself up,” he added.
This driver was accompanying an AFP team that was conducting an interview inside the Ministry of Information, located just opposite the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, when the explosion took place.
The rear window of the vehicle he was in was shattered by the blast, as well as the windows of the Ministry of Information.
Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran confirmed the blast, saying it “unfortunately caused casualties”. “Security teams have reached the area,” he tweeted.
He later claimed that “5 civilians were killed and a number of others were injured” in the blast.
Images of the place after the attack, authenticated by AFP, show several bodies lying on the road which borders the ministry. You can also hear injured people calling for help and see passers-by coming to their aid.
“There was supposed to be a Chinese delegation at the Foreign Ministry today, but we don’t know if it was present at the time of the explosion,” the deputy minister for information and culture told AFP. , Muhajer Farahi.
However, Ahmadullah Muttaqi, a senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office, said no foreigners were present at the ministry when it was attacked.
The Taliban say they have improved security in their country since returning to power in August 2021, but numerous bomb attacks have been carried out in recent months, generally claimed by I-K, the local branch of the Islamic State group ( IS).
On December 12, an attack claimed by IS was perpetrated by armed men, some of whom had been killed, against a hotel in the Afghan capital housing Chinese businessmen.
Five Chinese citizens were injured in the attack. Some customers had jumped out of the windows of the establishment to escape the fire which had broken out during the attack.
Foreigners targeted
Beijing has not officially recognized the Taliban government, but China, which shares a 76 km border with Afghanistan, is one of the few countries to have maintained a diplomatic presence there.
She has long feared that Afghanistan will become a base for the Uighur Muslim minority coming from the very sensitive Chinese border region of Xinjiang.
The Taliban have promised that Afghanistan will not be used as a base by Uighur militants. In exchange, Beijing offered them economic support and investments for the reconstruction of their country.
The Taliban are also counting on China to turn one of the world’s largest copper deposits into a mining factory. An exploitation that would be invaluable for redressing Afghanistan, short of money and hit by international economic sanctions.
The Chinese are not the only foreigners targeted by IS in recent months, as the Taliban attempt to attract investment from neighboring countries.
On December 2, IS claimed responsibility for an attack on the Pakistani embassy in Kabul, saying it targeted the mission chief.
Also in September, two Russian embassy staff were killed in a suicide bombing outside their mission, another attack claimed by IS.
Hundreds of people, including members of minority communities in Afghanistan, have been killed or injured in other attacks since the Taliban regained power.
Analysts consider that the jihadists of the IS, a Sunni group like the Taliban, but with which the latter maintain a deep enmity and ideological differences, remain the main threat weighing on the Kabul regime.