Suicide bombers strike near U.S. base in Kabul, killing 2 guards
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Date: 11/21/2012 9:57:30 AM
Sender: Washington Post
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Afghan and NATO＇s soldiers inspect the scene of a suicide bomb blast targeting a US military base in Kabul, on Nov. 21, 2012.
KABUL — A pair of suicide bombers in Afghan military uniforms penetrated the most heavily guarded district of this capital early Wednesday, killing two Afghan security guards and wounding five civilians in blasts at a checkpoint near the main U.S. military headquarters and half a dozen other international facilities.
Police officials said the bombers’ target was probably Camp Eggers, the large U.S. military compound that occupies several square blocks of the exclusive Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood. But a spokesman for the radical Islamist Taliban movement said the attack was aimed at a CIA compound and that “a large number” of insurgents had participated.
The attack during morning rush hour quickly emptied the streets of the normally congested city. It immediately intensified public worries of violence during the Shiite Muslim holy period of Moharram, which will climax Sunday with street processions and ritual self-flagellation. Last year during Moharram, a terrorist bombing near a Shiite shrine in Kabul took 54 lives.
But Afghan officials noted that the bombers targeted a district dominated by foreign and official buildings, embassies and bases, which is nowhere near any Shiite neighborhoods or activities. The city is full of black archways and colorful banners commemorating Moharram, but most Shiites live and worship several miles away in West Kabul.
The blocks immediately surrounding the blast site included the embassies of Pakistan and Canada, a security company and the home of the chief justice of the Afghan Supreme Court. The American Embassy is several blocks away, as are restaurants frequented by Westerners and the offices of the World Bank.
According to police, the bombers walked through multiple checkpoints into the heart of the high-security zone about 8 a.m. and were spotted by guards at another post. They said the guards opened fire and the bombers’ suicide vests exploded.
Several hours after the bombing, there was a large jagged hole at the scene of the blast. Charred metal and debris littered the street, and fire trucks were hosing it down. A guard post where the two Afghan security guards were killed was also charred black. A U.S. military tow truck was hauling away an armored SUV with its windows shattered.
Police investigators at the scene said one of the bombers was a man in his 30s or 40s wearing an Afghan National Army uniform. He was apparently able to walk nearly four blocks, through multiple checkpoints, to the spot where he confronted the guards and detonated his explosives.
“It is still confusing what was the target. There are so many possible ones right here,” one investigator said. He said the damaged SUV belonged to a senior Afghan army general, who might have been the object of the attack. The general was said to be unharmed.
Another senior police official said the bomber might have been attempting to enter a vacant building under construction near the sensitive compounds. Several previous terrorist attacks in Kabul have been launched from such unoccupied buildings, and officials have been working to make them more secure. |
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