Kabul, Jan. 28 (TNS): Kabul on Sunday mourned as death toll mounted to 130 in a suicide bombing in Kabul.
Attackers drove an ambulance past a police checkpoint to get to a crowded street in a district full of government buildings and embassies.
Afghanistan’s government has declared a day of mourning for Sunday, as funerals take place and relatives search hospitals for survivors.
The Taliban – a hardline Islamist group – said it was behind the attack.
It was the deadliest attack in Afghanistan for months and took place a week after an attack on a Kabul hotel in which 22 people were killed.
Health Minister Waheed Majroh said most of the 191 people injured were men.
After deadly blast, some foreign organisations are “reassessing their presence” in the country after the spate of attacks.
Nasrat Rahimi, deputy spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, said the attacker got through a security checkpoint after telling police he was taking a patient to nearby Jamhuriat hospital.
He detonated the bomb at a second checkpoint, said Mr Rahimi.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said the use of an ambulance was “harrowing”.
A Taliban spokesman later linked the attack to US efforts to assist Afghan forces with troops and airstrikes.
In a statement, Zabihullah Mujahid said: “If you go ahead with a policy of aggression and speak from the barrel of a gun, don’t expect Afghans to grow flowers in response.”
