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AFGHANISTAN-BLAST WRAP
At least seven dead in Kabul suicide blast near clerics’ gathering
KABUL, June 4, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – At least seven people were killed Monday
when a suicide bomber detonated near a gathering of top clerics in
Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, shortly after the group called such attacks a
sin, police said.
“Our initial information shows that the suicide attack took place when
guests were exiting the tent” where the meeting was being held at around
11.30 am (0700 GMT), police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai told local
broadcaster Tolo News.
“According to our initial information, seven people have been killed
including a policeman. Nine others have been injured, including two
policemen.”
Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said at least 12 people had been
killed and wounded, but did not give a breakdown.
The attacker detonated outside the tent, known as the Loya Jirga tent, or
“grand council” in Pashto, where gatherings of top clerics and government
officials are often held, Stanikzai said.
A security source confirmed it had been a suicide attack.
No group has yet claimed the attack, but both the Taliban and the Islamic
State group are stepping up their headline-grabbing assaults on the heavily
fortified capital, making it the most deadly place in the country for
civilians.
The Taliban recently issued a warning for civilians to “keep away” from
military and intelligence centres in Kabul as they were planning more
attacks.
Local media said that some 3,000 clerics had gathered at the tent for the
meeting of the Ulema Council, Afghanistan’s top religious leaders.
Earlier they issued a fatwa against the ongoing conflict in the country,
terming suicide attacks a sin against Islam. They have issued such fatwas in
the past.
“The ongoing war in Afghanistan does not have a legal basis, only Afghans
are the victims of this war… (it) does not have religious, national or
human value,” they said, according to government officials.
Roads around the tent were quickly blocked by security officials after the
blast, with heavy traffic jams building in the city.
Kabul accounted for 16 percent of all civilian casualties last year, when
1,831 civilians were killed or wounded nationwide, according to the United
Nations.
The myriad attacks in the last 12 months included two of the deadliest in
the city since the US invasion: a truck bomb on May 31, 2017 that killed more
than 150 people, and an ambulance bomb on January 27 this year which killed
more than 100.
The UN has warned that 2018 could be even deadlier.
Many fearful residents have restricted their movements as a result, afraid
to linger in bazaars or to become trapped in traffic during rush hour, a
prime time for attacks.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1452 hrs