AFGHANISTAN, February 7: A suicide bomber on foot ripped through a crowd of Afghan Supreme Court employees Tuesday, killing at least 20 people and wounding 41 others in the second attack on government institutions in under a month.
The assailant detonated the device in the parking lot as employees were boarding a bus to go home, leaving bodies scattered around the area, with women and children among the casualties.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the blast in the snow-laden Afghan capital, but it occurred as the Taliban are ramping up their nationwide insurgency even in the peak winter months when fighting usually abates.
“My father and I were exiting through the parking lot when a huge blast hit us,” said a witness, breaking down in tears. “My father is dead now. How will I live without him?”
The piercingly loud explosion shook nearby buildings, smashing windows and blasting debris onto the streets.
Police blocked off the road around the high-profile compound located near the US embassy as panicked relatives of court employees began to gather and ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene. “Twenty people were killed (including 3 women & one child), and 41 others were injured in today’s suicide attack in #Kabul,” health ministry official Wahidullah Mayar wrote on Twitter. The ministry warned the toll could rise still further. 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.-Agencies
