Jul 7, 2008, 10:58 GMT
Kabul/Delhi - A powerful explosion killed at least 44 people and wounded scores of others in an apparent suicide attack at the Indian embassy in Kabul Monday, officials said.
Two high-ranking embassy officials were among four Indian ationals killed in the attack in Afghanistan's capital Monday, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in the Indian capital.
He said defence attache Brigadier R Mehta and political counselor V Venkat Rao were killed in the blast, along with two Indo-Tibetan Border Police security personnel, and an Afghan national employed at the Indian mission.
'A special team is leaving for Kabul immediately to attend this emergency situation facing our mission,' Mukherjee said.
Afghan security sources said at least 44 people were killed in the deadliest suicide bombing since fall of Taliban regime in 2001.
An official statement by the Interior Ministry said only that more than 100 people were killed and injured in the incident.
According to the statement, initial findings showed the bomber targeted Indian embassy. 'Terrorists in cooperation with some secret agencies in the region carried out this attack,' it said.
The victims were mostly civilians including women and children, a ministry spokesmen said.
'The government of India strongly condemns this cowardly terrorist attack on its diplomatic mission in Afghanistan. Such acts of terror will not deter us from fulfilling our commitments to the government and people of Afghanistan,' India's External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said in New Delhi.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack as the work of enemies of the strong friendship between Afghanistan and India.
'Enemies of Afghanistan cannot stop friendly relations of the two countries by carrying out such attacks,' Karzai said in a statement.
Militants have frequently attacked Indian projects and personnel in Afghanistan during the past two years. India is involved in several reconstruction and rehabilitation projects in the country.
The bodies of the four Indians and all those seriously injured would be flown back to Delhi as soon as possible, diplomatic officials said.
An Indian Foreign Ministry official said embassy officials going to work were the target of the attack at about 8:30 am outside the embassy gate.
Five people died on the spot while two died in hospital after a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed car outside the gate of the Indian embassy, according to the Afghan Defence Ministry.
Local Afghan media reported that at least 15 people were killed or injured in the attack. A television station quoted doctors from the hospital saying at least 16 injured people arrived in the emergency room.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan called the bombing 'a cowardly and heinous crime.'
'In no culture, no country, and no religion is there any excuse or justification for such acts,' a statement from the UN office said.
Following the blast, US troops in Kabul opened fire on a car near the Iranian embassy, injuring at least one person.
An Interior Ministry spokesman confirmed the incident, saying the US forces were coming to help secure the crime scene.
'A car was coming near to the US forces and US troops opened fire, in result on person injured,' the spokesman said.
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