Suicide bomber kills 33
A suicide bomber yesterday killed dozens of people, many of them teenagers, after detonating a device among a crowd in Kabul who were celebrating the Persian New Year holiday, officials said.
There were distressing scenes at the hospital opposite the blast site where grief-stricken relatives screamed as they clutched and hugged the bloodied bodies of their loved ones, on what is normally a day of celebration for Afghan families.
The Islamic State group's local franchise in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for the assault in the heavily Shia neighbourhood -- the fifth suicide bombing in the Afghan capital in recent weeks -- via the messaging app Telegram.
The blast killed 33 and wounded 65, the health ministry said, up from an earlier toll given by the interior ministry of 26 dead and 18 hurt. All the injured were civilians, said interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi.
The bomber, who was on foot, detonated his device in front of Kabul University and the hospital that was opposite, Rahimi said. The blast could be heard several kilometres away.
Witnesses told police the bomb had been hidden inside a drum carried by the attacker, Kabul police spokesman Basir Mujahid told AFP.
But Rahimi said an investigation indicated he had been wearing a suicide vest.
The blast happened near the Karte Sakhi shrine where many Afghans gather every year to mark Nawrooz, which is the traditional Persian New Year holiday but is considered un-Islamic by Muslim fundamentalists.
The bomber had been unable to reach it due to heavy security for Nawrooz, so he "detonated himself among teenagers returning from there", Kabul police chief Mohammad Daud Amin told Tolo News.
Bloodstains could be seen among scattered shoes and other belongings at the site of the attack.
IS, which regularly targets Shias in an attempt to stir up sectarian violence in Sunni-majority Afghanistan, has attacked the same shrine once before. In October 2016 IS gunmen killed 18 people gathered to mark Ashura, an important date for many Muslims, especially Shias.
President Ashraf Ghani, whose government has been repeatedly lambasted for its inability to protect its citizens, condemned the latest attack in a statement as a "crime against humanity".
Some Western and Afghan security experts believe the Haqqani Network, a hard-line wing of the Taliban, has been behind some of the attacks in Kabul in recent months, including those claimed by IS.
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