A large car bomb blast rocked the Afghan capital on Sunday morning, leaving 9 dead and 20 wounded, according to Afghanistan’s interior minister.
Interior Minister Masoud Andarabi told media at the site of the attack that in addition to the 9 deaths, the blast also wounded 20 others, including a member of the Afghan parliament and the lawmaker named Khan Mohammad Wardak who was the primary target of the attack. He said that Warkad was in good condition, but also added that the death toll could rise further.
The blast occurred when Wardak’s convoy was passing through an intersection in Kabul’s Khoshal Khan neighbourhood. The blast set fire to the vehicles in its immediate vicinity as well as damaged the shops, houses and buildings nearby.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack in a statement, adding that the Taliban should stop violence against the civilians and accept a ceasefire to facilitate the peace process. Ghani’s statement didn’t explicitly put blame on the Taliban, nor did it offer any evidence that the group might be behind the attack.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Kabul in recent months, including attacks on academic institutions that killed nearly 50 people, most of them students. The group also claimed responsibility for Saturday’s rocket attack at a major US base in Afghanistan. According to NATO and provincial officials, the attack did not result in any casualties.
In a separate development in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, the Afghan defence ministry confirmed in a statement that a suicide car bomber tried to attack an army checkpoint, but was identified and then shot down by the soldiers. The soldiers were slightly wounded in the attack.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack as well.