Four Indians among 44 killed in suicide blast in Kabul (3rd Roundup)

South Asia News

Jul 7, 2008, 12:49 GMT

Kabul/Delhi - A powerful explosion killed at least 44 people, including high-ranking Indian embassy officials, and wounded 147 others in an apparent suicide attack at the Indian embassy in Kabul Monday, Afghan interior ministry officials said. An Indian security official stands guard outside the damaged Indian embassy, after a suicide car bomb attack outside the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, 07 July 2008. A suicide attacker detonated explosives attached to his body outside the Indian embassy in the Afghan capital, killing more than 40 people, many of them civilians waiting to collect visas. EPA/S. SABAWOON

An Indian security official stands guard outside the damaged Indian embassy, after a suicide car bomb attack outside the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, 07 July 2008. A suicide attacker detonated explosives attached to his body outside the Indian embassy in the Afghan capital, killing more than 40 people, many of them civilians waiting to collect visas. EPA/S. SABAWOONThe attack marks the deadliest suicide bombing since the fall of Taliban regime in 2001. An official statement by the Interior Ministry said more than 100 people were killed and injured in the incident, but gave no details. According to the statement, initial findings showed the bomber targeted the 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, Abdullah Fahim, spokesman of the Afghan Health Ministry said. Four Indians, including two high-ranking embassy officials, were among four Indian nationals killed in bombing attack, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said at a briefing 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 - Ajay Panthia and Roop Singh. An Afghan national employed at the Indian mission had also been killed, he said. 'A special team is leaving for Kabul immediately to attend this emergency situation facing our mission,' Mukherjee said. The team, headed by a high-ranking diplomat, would include security officials and a medical team. Diplomatic officials said the team would also re-evaluate the security of Indians working in Afghanistan. The bodies of the four Indians and all those seriously injured would be flown back to Delhi as soon as possible, diplomatic officials said. Three other Indian security personnel and an Afghan employee were critically injured in the blast, Jayant Prashad, the Indian ambassador to Afghanistan, told the IANS news agency. 'Dozens of visa seekers and Afghan nationals located adjacent to the embassy have also been killed or injured in the attack after a suicide member blew up his vehicle at the entrance to the embassy,' he said. He said other personnel in the embassy were safe and India was determined to carry on with work aimed at rebuilding violence-torn Afghanistan. 'The morale of my colleagues in the embassy is good and nothing is going to shake them in their commitment,' Prashad said. Militants, over the past two years, have frequently attacked Indian projects and personnel in Afghanistan. India is involved in several reconstruction and rehabilitation projects in the country. '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 a statement. Earlier, the Afghan Defence Ministry said 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. 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 had arrived in the emergency room so far. 'The situation is critical and the blast destroyed several vehicles parked around the area,' a witness said. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, while strongly condemning suicide attack outside then Indian embassy, said 'enemies' of the strong friendship between Afghanistan and India targeted the Indian embassy. A statement issued from the president's office said, 'The president strongly condemned the terrorist attack against the Indian embassy in Kabul and considers it the work of enemies of Afghanistan-India friendship.' The statement quoted Karzai as saying, 'Enemies of Afghanistan cannot stop friendly relations of the two countries by carrying out such attacks.' A statement released by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said, 'It can only be described as a cowardly and heinous crime. I condemn it in the strongest possible terms. In no culture, no country, and no religion is there any excuse or justification for such acts.' Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta visited the Indian embassy and met the Indian deputy ambassador, said Sultan Ahmed Baheen said, spokesman for the foreign ministry, adding, 'The foreign minister offered condolence and sympathised with the embassy staff on behalf of the Afghan people.' 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 one person was injured,' the spokesman said. In southern Afghanistan, a soldier of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force died from injuries sustained in an explosion, the military said Monday. It did not identify the nationality of the soldier.

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karlJul 7th, 2008 - 21:37:30

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha .it nevers ends it never will it's their way of life.
and it gets funnier...and bush thought he was going to change the world .ha ha ha ha .

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PorkyJul 8th, 2008 - 10:19:18

No doubt there then that they all died in the name of Allah.
The trouble with that though is that the existance of Allah is all down to the word of one man, the prophet Muhammed.
If you were told by a slave trading, rapist, murderer and pedophile that he herd the voice of a God would you believe him?
The World is populated by idiots.

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AfghanJul 16th, 2008 - 06:47:42

This suicide blast was one of the deadly and dangerous blast in Kabul i ever seen, it sound shaked all kabul, the day was dark and dusty i was 1KM far from the incident, there was rush of ambulance, you can't find a body there, you could only fine piece of hand, leg and other parts of the body they says that only 44 has been killed but i see from my eyes that above 100 killed in the incident, very dangerous, i am afraid to be in Kabul.

Every day their are incidents but this was very big,
Every day the police arrest suicide bombers they are from Pakistan, supported by ISI everybody know this, we have prove and we have evidence, because when the poilce arrest them they only speak urdu they don't know the Afghan language and they say that we came from Pakistan.

This is not dangerous only for Afghanistan but also for Pakistan, we have to stop it other wise it is going to spread all over the world, it is the biggest threat through all over the world. because i know and remember that black day that how is past to see the body of humans in ambulances.

Pakistan especially ISI damaged afghanistan now please stop damaging

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Four Indians among 44 killed in suicide blast in Kabul (3rd Roundup)

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