Suicide blast kills four, wounds dozens in central Kabul

The bombing coincided with the end of the working day, when ministry employees board minibuses in the car park to go home.

KABUL // At least four people were killed and more than 50 were injured when a Taliban suicide car bomber struck the car park of the justice ministry in Kabul on Tuesday , the latest in a string of attacks in the Afghan capital.

A thick plume of smoke rose over the city after the powerful explosion during evening rush hour, which left the car park littered with twisted and charred wrecks of dozens of vehicles.

The 4pm bombing coincided with the end of the working day, when ministry employees board minibuses in the car park to go home.

The ministry is surrounded by buildings and shops and is in one of the busiest areas of Kabul city centre. The area was cordoned off by security officials as firefighters doused the smouldering wreckage.

Deputy interior minister Mohammad Ayoub Salangi said four men and one woman had been killed, but one of them may have been the bomber.

“The body of one of the victims was torn into pieces and we cannot verify if he was the suicide attacker,” Mr Salangi said.

The health ministry said at least 53 people had been taken to various Kabul hospitals.

“We are getting more every minute,” ministry spokesman Mohammad Ismail Kawoosi said.

Afghan president Ashraf Ghani condemned Tuesday’s bombing – the third deadly attack to jolt the Afghan capital in a week – in the “strongest possible terms”.

The US embassy in Kabul also condemned the bombing.

The militants were behind an attack on a Kabul guesthouse last week that killed 14 people, including nine foreigners, and a suicide car bombing this week that killed three people, among them two young girls and a British security contractor.

They also claimed responsibility for a series of recent attacks on judicial employees, including buses carrying workers of the attorney general’s office.

The insurgents launched their spring offensive in late April with attacks across a widespread area of the country in what appears to be a fresh strategy aimed at forcing the government to concentrate its efforts and assets on security – rather than on much-needed economic reforms.

Official efforts to bring the Taliban, who have waged a 13-year war to topple the US-backed government, to the negotiating table have so far borne little fruit.

The surge in attacks has taken a heavy toll on civilians, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

In the first four months of 2015, civilian casualties jumped 16 per cent over the same period last year, it said.

Nato last week formally announced plans to retain a small military presence in Afghanistan after 2016 to help strengthen local security forces.

* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press