Bomb Kills 7 Near NATO’s Afghan Headquarters

Bomb Kills 7 Near NATO’s Afghan Headquarters
By CARLOTTA GALL
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: August 15, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/world/asia/16afghan.html?_r=1&ref=global-home


KABUL, Afghanistan — After a huge car bomb exploded in the center of the capital on Saturday morning, killing seven people and wounding 91, President Hamid Karzai said Afghans would not be deterred from voting in national elections in five days.

The suicide car bomb struck just outside the NATO force’s headquarters and the Ministry of Transportation, on the same street as the American Embassy.

The Taliban has increased suicide bombings around the country in recent weeks as national and regional elections near, but Kabul has been largely spared; this was the first suicide bombing in the capital in several months.

Mr. Karzai, who is seeking re-election on Thursday, strongly condemned the attack. “The enemies of Afghanistan, through such attacks in the run-up to the elections, want to spread terror among people, but they must know that Afghans are fully aware of the value of the elections and will cast their votes for the sake of security and peace in their country,” he said.

An embassy spokeswoman said there were no injuries or damage at the well-guarded compound, but the bomb, which went off about 8:30 a.m., caught many people on their way to work.

The brunt of the casualties were borne by civilian workers at the Transportation Ministry and Afghan Army guards at the entrance to the NATO headquarters where Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of the coalition forces, has his offices.

The Defense Ministry said seven people were killed, all civilians. The bodies of four Afghans, three of them government workers and one a passerby, were taken to the city’s military hospital. A male civilian died of wounds in another city hospital, a doctor there said. It was not clear where the remaining two were.

The wounded included some 16 Afghan soldiers and a member of Parliament, Hawa Alam Nuristani, officials said. At the main civilian hospital nearby, 57 civilians were treated, most of them government workers from the Ministry of Transportation.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the blast. “One of our suicide bombers in a Surf vehicle packed with 500 kilograms of explosives targeted the ISAF headquarters,” the spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said by telephone from an undisclosed location, referring to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. “We will continue this kind of operation in the future and we will accelerate our operations against the Afghan and foreign forces.”

A spokesman for NATO-led force, Col. Wayne M. Shanks, said five foreign soldiers were wounded in the blast. He said he could not reveal their nationality but that they were not badly wounded and four had already returned to duty. Twelve Afghan soldiers and six civilians were also treated for wounds in the ISAF forces medical facility, he said.

A driver for the member of Parliament, Muhammad Naim Khan, 27, said he was turning his car near the ministry when he saw the bomber ram his station wagon into a vehicle that had just left the barricades outside the ISAF headquarters.

“I saw fire and the parts of the car flying in the air,” he said. “I saw three or four people dead, and six to seven people wounded on the road.” He had blood on his sleeve, but had escaped with only a split lip and a cut on his head. The Parliament member, Ms. Nuristani, was wounded but out of danger, he said.

An Afghan soldier, Lt. Muhammad Haroon, 23, was among the guards wounded at the ISAF gate. “I heard a very loud explosion, followed by dust and the dust made me blind,” he said. “After that I fell on the ground. I saw 10 people on the ground, blood pouring from their bodies. They were yelling for help.”

A driver for the Transportation Ministry, Abdul Raqib, 35, said that at the time of the blast he was inside the ministry building, where dozens of people were wounded by flying glass. He took four of the wounded people to waiting ambulances in his own car, he said.

The wounded lying in the city hospitals expressed resignation rather than fear. One woman, Hamida, who only uses one name, was signing the employee attendance sheet at the Transportation Ministry when the explosion occurred. She was cut by flying shards of glass in the head and legs. “I don’t know what their target was, but the target ended up being civilians,” she said.

The blast occurred in one of the city’s most heavily guarded streets, which runs between the United States Embassy and the presidential palace. The embassy is about 100 yards from the site of the explosion, but heavy barriers and blast walls protect it from the street. The palace is about 200 yards away in the opposite direction.

An embassy spokeswoman, Fleur Cowan, said that the blast did not affect the embassy and none of its staff were hurt. Saturday is not a full working day at the embassy, and local staff who were coming in had arrived already, she said.

Ruhullah Khapalwak contributed reporting.