The blast near the Foreign Ministry in Malik Asghar Roundabout in downtown Kabul on Monday has sparked reactions from Afghan politicians and Kabul-based diplomatic missions.
At least six people were killed and several more, including three Islamic Emirate forces, were wounded in a suicide attack near a checkpoint on the Foreign Ministry’s road.
The Interior Ministry’s spokesman Abdul Nafay Takor said the attacker was gunned down reaching his target but explosives attached to his body were detonated.
Former President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack and called it against human and Islamic values.
Former chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, also condemned the attack and called it an attack organized by the “enemies of the Afghan people”.
He said the attack contradicts all human and Islamic values.
The UN mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, in a statement condemned the attack and said “it is unacceptable that ordinary Afghans continue to be targeted as they go about their daily lives.”
The third deputy prime minister, Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, also condemned the attack.
He said that such attacks reveal the real faces of the enemies of Islam and Afghans.
Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack.
“The Daesh phenomenon existing in Afghanistan has almost been suppressed, by 90 percent, and the Islamic Emirate is trying to root it out from all over the country. Such small incidents that happen are common all over the world,” said Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesman for the Islamic Emirate.
A former Afghan diplomat, Asadullah Rahmani, who served as diplomat in Iran, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Japan was among the six killed people.
“They (family members) were shocked and arrived soon. My brother in-law, sisters and mother arrived. They were not allowed. Only my brother-in-law went inside. Then a military vehicle came out and my father was at its back,” said Abdullah, son of Rahmani.
Rahmani was buried on Tuesday.
“They were also working in the archive department of the Foreign Ministry. He worked there for the past 15 to 20 years,” said Fahim, son in-law of Rahmani.
In reaction to the attack, the US special envoy for Afghanistan, Thomas West said on Twitter that “Afghans have suffered enough, and terrorism for any reason at any place is indefensible.
Sincerest condolences to the families of the victims and to those injured.”
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