MAZAR-I-SHARIF // The death toll from a Taliban lorry bombing at the German consulate in Afghanistan’s Mazar-i-Sharif city rose to six on Friday, with more feared and 100 others wounded.
The Taliban said the bombing late on Thursday was a “revenge attack” for US air strikes that killed 32 civilians in the volatile province of Kunduz this month.
“The suicide attacker rammed his explosives-laden car into the wall of the German consulate,” local police chief Sayed Kamal Sadat said.
All German staff from the consulate were unharmed, according to the foreign ministry in Berlin.
Seven Afghan civilians were killed, including two motorcyclists who were shot dead by German security forces close to the consulate after they refused to heed their warning to stop, said deputy police chief Abdul Razaq Qadri.
A suspect was detained near the diplomatic mission on Friday morning, Mr Qadri said.
Doctor Noor Mohammad Fayez said the city hospitals received six dead bodies, including two killed by bullets.
At least 128 others were wounded, some of them critically and many with shrapnel injuries, he added.
“The consulate building has been heavily damaged,” the German foreign ministry said. “Our sympathies go out to the Afghan injured and their families.”
A diplomatic source in Berlin said foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had convened a crisis meeting.
“There was fighting outside and on the grounds of the consulate,” a ministry spokesman said. “Afghan security forces and Resolute Support (Nato) forces from Camp Marmal (German base in Mazar-i-Sharif) are on the scene.”
Afghan special forces cordoned off the consulate – formerly the Mazar Hotel – as helicopters flew overhead and ambulances arrived.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the “martyrdom attack” on the consulate had left “tens of invaders” dead. The insurgents routinely exaggerate battlefield claims.
Mr Mujahid said the assault was in retaliation for American air strikes in Kunduz.
US forces conceded last week that its air strikes were “very likely” to have resulted in civilian casualties in Kunduz, pledging a full investigation into the incident.
The strikes killed several children, after a Taliban assault killed two American soldiers and three Afghan special forces soldiers near Kunduz city.
The strikes triggered protests in Kunduz city, with the victims’ relatives parading mutilated bodies of dead children on lorries through the streets.
Civilian casualties caused by Nato forces have been one of the most contentious issues in the 15-year campaign against the insurgents, prompting strong public and government criticism.
The latest attack came two days after the US presidential election.
Afghanistan scarcely featured although the situation there will be an urgent matter for president-elect Donald Trump.
* Agence France-Presse
