Terrorism

Suicide bomber strikes Afghan Supreme Court

AFP and Staff

Afghan security personnel guard the site of a Kabul suicide bombing February 7. The bomber killed at least 20 people. [WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP]

Afghan security personnel guard the site of a Kabul suicide bombing February 7. The bomber killed at least 20 people. [WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP]

KABUL -- A suicide bombing ripped through a crowd of Afghan Supreme Court employees Tuesday (February 7), killing at least 20 and wounding 41 in the second attack on government institutions in under a month.

The assailant, who was on foot, self-detonated in a parking lot as employees were boarding a bus to go home, leaving bodies and dismembered limbs scattered around the area.

All the victims were civilians, Interior Ministry spokesperson Najib Danish told Salaam Times.

The casualties included three women and a child, according to the Ministry of Health, which warned that the death toll could rise.

No group has so far claimed responsibility, but the Taliban have targeted the court previously. They killed 15 civilians with a suicide car bomb at the entrance to the compound in 2013.

At the time the insurgent group threatened further attacks on the judiciary if it continued to sentence its militants to death.

The explosion shook nearby buildings, smashing windows and blasting debris onto the streets.

"My father and I were exiting through the parking lot when a huge blast hit us," a witness, breaking down into tears, told AFP. "My father is dead now. How will I live without him?"

Police blocked off the road around the compound as panicked relatives of court employees began to gather and as ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene.

There were scenes of desperation at the Italian-run Emergency Hospital in Kabul as anxious civilians looking for missing relatives searched through the ambulances that brought the dead and wounded.

'Crime against humanity'

President Ashraf Ghani called the attack a "crime against humanity and an unforgivable act".

"The militants respect neither Islam nor humanity," MP Shagul Rezayee of Ghazni told Salaam Times. "It isn't their first or last time killing the innocent."

"Civilians are the main victims of such Taliban attacks," Kabul civil society activist Mohammad Nader told Salaam Times. "We want the government to prevent such deadly attacks."

Last month, twin suicide blasts claimed by Taliban fighters tore through employees exiting a parliament annex in Kabul, killing at least 36 people and wounding 80 others.

Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) are battling the Taliban, al-Qaeda and the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) in the country.

Najibullah and Sulaiman contributed to this report.

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