Jan. 13 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Taliban fundamentalist movement has finally confirmed that at least 23 people died in the attack on Thursday in front of the headquarters of the Foreign Ministry in the Afghan capital, Kabul, according to what officials of the ministry have informed, on condition of anonymity, to the chain Afghan Amu TV.
The deceased are former employees of the Ministry and among the injured, approximately twenty, there are four Taliban, according to the same source.
The Taliban are generally reticent to give specific numbers of deaths in attacks like this last one, for which the jihadist organization Islamic State once again claimed responsibility, in its sixth major attack in the last 50 days.
Faced with this lack of transparency, other sources such as the former Foreign Affairs spokesman and now spokesman for the so-called Panshir anti-Taliban resistance, Sibghatullah Ahmadi, spoke on Twitter of at least 50 deaths and injuries in the attack, before denouncing that the security guards Taliban security officers even opened fire on Ministry employees who were trying to leave the area. The Taliban have not ruled on these accusations.
Nine hours after the attack, Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, a suicide bombing intended to “disrupt a meeting between the Taliban and foreign diplomats.”
In fact, Amu TV sources close to the Ministry confirmed that shortly before the explosion, a delegation from the UN mission in the country, UNAMA, headed by envoy Markus Potzel, was present at the Ministry to meet with the Taliban Deputy Foreign Minister Sher Mohamad Abbas Stanikzai.
According to these sources, the explosion occurred only five minutes after Stanikzai left the building. The UNAMA delegation left the premises fifteen minutes before the detonation.
According to the NGO Emergency, which usually reports transfers of victims of these attacks to hospitals, this is the first “incident with mass casualties” since the beginning of the year. In 2022, the NGO attended at least 29 events of this nature.
