41 die in embassy bomb attack

AFGHANISTAN'S government has blamed "foreign agents in the region" – a reference to Pakistan – for yesterday's suicide car bomb attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, which left 41 dead and at least 141 injured.

It was the deadliest attack in Afghanistan's capital since the fall of the Taleban and the worst attack in the country since a suicide bomber killed more than 100 people at a dog-fighting competition in Kandahar in February.

A Taleban spokesman initially claimed the bombing, but that was later contradicted by another spokesman.

The Taleban tends to claim responsibility for attacks that inflict heavy tolls on international or Afghan troops and deny responsibility for attacks that primarily kill Afghan civilians.

In the past, Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, has been quick to blame Pakistan's secret service, the ISI, for masterminding some of the country's deadliest and most sophisticated attacks, including the assassination attempt on his life in April. The interior ministry said it believed this latest attack had been carried out "in co- ordination and consultation with an active intelligence service in the region".

Mr Karzai said: "With this cowardly attack, the enemies of peace in Afghanistan wanted to hurt ongoing friendly relations of Afghanistan with the rest of the world, especially India.

"Such attacks will not hamper Afghanistan's relations with other nations."

Yesterday's attack was less sophisticated than the Serena Hotel bombing, which killed eight foreigners in December, but far more brutal. Many of the dead and wounded were queuing up for Indian visas or shopping in a nearby market when the blast struck.

Severed limbs and naked torsos lay strewn across the road outside the embassy, some blown as far as 50 metres from the main gates by the power of the explosion.

A shopkeeper whose business is near the embassy said: "I saw a Toyota Corolla drive into the gates of the Indian embassy at high-speed. I saw the car explode and then bodies flying. When I could see again, there were human legs and arms scattered all over the street."

The bomb, which was so large that it destroyed one of the embassy's walls and blew in nearby shop windows, killed 41 people and injured 141, the interior and health ministries said.

India's defence attaché and a diplomat were among four Indians killed in the blast. Two Indonesian diplomats, whose embassy is nearby, were injured in the attack.

Danish Karokhil, the head of an Afghan news agency whose offices were close to the blast, said: "The target was the diplomatic vehicles.

"They were trying to get inside the Indian embassy when the suicide car bomber attacked them. I saw wounded and dead people everywhere on the road."

Haroun Mir, a political analyst who served as an adviser to Afghanistan's former defence minister in the mid-1990s, said: "The finger is definitely being pointed at Pakistan's ISI.

"The attacks on the Serena and on president Karzai have had the imprint of al-Qaeda and they could not function without having the support of rogue elements inside the Pakistani government."

He said ISI support and the ability of ISI spies to infiltrate Afghan security forces were behind the Taleban's increasingly sophisticated attacks in Afghanistan.

Pakistan's secret service has supported mujahideen groups in Afghanistan ever since the Soviet invasion in 1979.

Last month, Mr Karzai sparked a diplomatic row with Islamabad when he threatened to send Afghan troops into Pakistan's tribal regions to flush out militants accused of launching increasingly deadly attacks on Afghan soil.

India, Pakistan's rival, has developed a strong relationship with the Afghan government since the Taleban fell from power. India has pledged about £430 million to build roads and hospitals and to improve water and electricity supplies in war-racked Afghanistan.

"The government of India strongly condemns this cowardly terrorist attack on its diplomatic mission in Afghanistan. Such acts of terror will not deter us from fulfilling our commitments to the government and people of Afghanistan," the Indian foreign ministry said.

In recent months, a number of Indian road engineers and aid workers have been kidnapped or killed in suicide attacks.

India said it was sending a high-level team to Kabul to assess the "emergency" situation there.

Kai Eide, the United Nations' envoy to Afghanistan, said that "in no culture, no country and no religion is there any excuse or justification for such acts.

"The total disregard for innocent lives is staggering and those behind this must be held responsible."

The UN sent an e-mail to its staff advising them to stay off Kabul's roads because of reports that a second suicide car bomber was in the city.

The embassy attack was the sixth suicide bombing in Kabul this year. Insurgent violence has killed more than 2,200 people – mostly militants – in Afghanistan this year.

TIMELINE

18 February, 2008 – A suicide car bomber trying to hit a Canadian military convoy kills 38 Afghans at a crowded market in Spin Boldak, Kandahar province.

17 February, 2008 – A suicide bomber penetrates a crowd watching a dog-fighting competition in the Taleban's former stronghold of Kandahar, killing more than 100 people, including an Afghan militia leader.

6 November, 2007 – Six lawmakers, including Sayed Mustafa Kazimi, a spokesman for the main opposition group, are killed by a suicide bomber in Baghlan province during a visit to a sugar factory. Sixty-one students also die in the bombing and the subsequent shooting by guards.