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| Afghanistan |
| Suicide Bomb Rocks Downtown Kabul |
| 2014-01-18 |
| [Tolo News] A jacket wallah reportedly detonated explosives near a Lebanese restaurant frequented by foreigners in a central neighborhood of Kabul late Friday night. There were confirmed casualties from the attack, but the exact details are unknown. According to Ministry of Interior (MoI) front man Sediq Sediqqi, Afghan cops have cordoned off the area around the restaurant, called Taverna du Liban. The restaurant sits in the Wazir Akbar Khan area of the capital that houses a number of embassies. Police officials have indicated there there were gunnies inside the restaurant following the blast. And bystanders told TOLOnews' news hound on the scene that scattered gunshots were heard before and after the kaboom. Initial reports indicate that employees of the restaurant were amongst the casualties. Six injured civilians were spotted by TOLOnews news hounds, but whether they were inside or outside the restaurant at the time of the attack is unknown. Taverna du Liban is a popular restaurant in Kabul with high security and the reputation for serving foreign diplomats and aid workers. It is known to draw crowds on Friday nights. The Taliban's front man Zabihullah Mujahid grabbed credit for the attack, which he said was targeting foreign officials. There have been a number of high-profile Taliban attacks in the capital since the start of 2014, after the country saw one of the bloodiest fighting seasons of the 13-year war last year. Despite claiming to only target Afghan cops, government officials and foreigners, Taliban attacks, especially in urban settings such as Kabul, often result in predominantely Afghan civilian casualties. The United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... has attributed over 70 percent of all civilian casualties in Afghanistan to Taliban attacks. |
| Posted by:Fred |