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Updated at 7pm
MORE THAN 40 people were killed and dozens wounded in a suicide blast targeting Shiites in Kabul today, officials said, with chaotic scenes at the city’s hospitals as anguished families sought loved ones.
The Sunni Islamic State group (IS) claimed responsibility for the gruesome assault on the pro-Iranian Tabayan cultural centre, the third deadly attack it has claimed in the Afghan capital this month.
Up to 100 people had gathered at the centre to mark the 38th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It is located in western Kabul, in the same building as affiliated Afghan Voice Agency (AVA), an anti-IS media outlet.
“The latest figures we have from this tragic incident shows 41 people have been killed and a further 84 people injured,” health ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh told reporters.
Kabul has become one of the deadliest places in war-torn Afghanistan for civilians in recent months, as the Taliban step up their attacks and IS seeks to expand its presence in the country.
Today’s attack saw chaotic scenes at the Istiqlal hospital where ambulances and police pickups brought victims, including women and children. Many of them had suffered severe burns to their faces and bodies, as well as shrapnel wounds, AFP reporters said.
Visibly distressed relatives searching for their loved ones inside the medical facility slapped their heads in fury as they cried and cursed the government for seemingly being unable to end the regular carnage on their streets.
Some were so distraught they crawled on the ground pulling their hair.
AFP reporters saw more than a dozen badly burned bodies lying on the floor in a room inside the hospital and wooden coffins being delivered so families could take away the remains of loved ones.
Deputy interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told AFP the attack – the deadliest since a Shiite mosque bombing in October that killed more than 50 worshippers – was followed by two smaller bomb blasts as victims and survivors were leaving the scene.
A journalist with AVA, which is located above the cultural centre, said that more than 100 people were at the event in the building’s basement, with a number of AVA staff among the victims.
Today’s assault comes days after a suicide bomber killed six civilians in a Christmas Day attack near an Afghan intelligence agency compound in the city, which was also claimed by IS.
On 18 December militants from the group stormed an intelligence training compound in Kabul, triggering an intense gunfight with police, two of whom were wounded.
The Middle Eastern jihadist outfit has gained ground in Afghanistan since it first appeared in the region in 2015, and has scaled up its attacks in Kabul, including on security installations and the country’s Shiite minority.
‘Big boom’
A man attending the anniversary ceremony at Tabayan said he heard a “big boom”.
“We do not know the numbers (of casualties). When the explosion happened we immediately fled,” he told Tolo News.
Mohammad Hasan Rezayee, a university student also at the ceremony, told Tolo News he had suffered burns to his face in the blast. Speaking from his hospital bed, he said:
We were inside the hall in the second row when an explosion from behind took place. I did not see the bomber who detonated himself.
“After the blast there was fire and smoke inside the building and everyone was pleading for help.”
Photos posted on Afghan Voice Agency’s Facebook page showed the inside of a compound with debris and bodies lying on the ground.
Security in Kabul has been ramped up since 31 May when a massive truck bomb ripped through the diplomatic quarter, killing some 150 people and wounding around 400 others – mostly civilians. No group has yet claimed that attack.
Religious attacks in Afghanistan have skyrocketed in the past two years with the minority Shiite community the main target, the United Nations said in November.
IS, a Suni extremist group, has claimed most of the attacks on Shiite worshippers as it seeks to stir up sectarian violence in the country.
Afghan media has also previously been targeted by militants, underlying the risks faced by journalists in the war-torn country.
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Anyone who says the usual nonsense about building it around the M50 clearly doesn’t drive on the M50 regularly.
Dave, I hear the M50 is quiet between 3am and 4am. I personally think they’re fibbing.
In the event of an emergency id be hooring up the hard shoulder and stopping for nobody. Its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. :-)
Dave this is a maternity hospital who services South Dublin. It’s a perfect location.
@Dave Harris: more then 2/3rds ot the poulation live outside of dublin, it;s the national childrens hospital not the dublin childrens hospital
Serious joke yet again. Why the likes of Blanchardstown and Tallaght hospitals were,’t given preference for the maternity and childrens hospitals is beyond me. They have more than adequit land and travel facilitys.
Can’t fathom that either. Surely cheaper land and far easier to travel to and park the further from Dublin. Bad enough for a couple of births, but a Children’s hospital will have many repeat visitors per family.
Because the high flyers who run these hospitals don’t live in Tallaght or Blanchardstown that’s why.
I agree, it should have been moved to the end of my street. Or better still they should build one at the end of everyone’s street
Great that’s just around the corner from my house, better start knocking the wife up
The land is owned by Vincents what you on about
@viking – why would it move to Blanchardstown!? It provides maternity services for Dublin South East and East Wicklow. Are you really that stupid?
The Rotunda Hospital is due to move to Blanchardstown
@The Viking: Not the maternity or children’s hospital, a hospital. there will be more. Blanch and tallaght will get theirs, just not this time.
Meanwhile you propose a stripping out of the city centre. coring the heart and installing stand alone drive through only monstrosities as far from the centre as possible.
How far out do you need to live before you can stop being ashamed of being a Dub?
@The Viking:, there’s more to a hospital than just parking and roads. Blanch was ruled out as a collocation site for the children’s hospital because it’s *not as good medically*. Maybe it’s just me but the quality and experience of the doctors and nursing staff beat parking and traffic considerations any day.
A Dub ? … The clue is in the name : National. As in, everywhere outside Dublin as well. There’s more to Ireland than bloody coddle & chips. …
@Platypus Parcel: is this the national childrens hospital or the south dublin childrens hospital ? im sure youre not aware but theres a whole world outside south dublin
It’s just called that, the rotunda I’d due to move to blanch and the combe to James or tallaght. People getting very hot up when they clearly don’t understand how the maternity hospitals work, and also that this article is not about the children’s hospital!!
Co-location is no longer considered necessary by international standards. Maybe the children’s hospital location should now be reconsidered
Shame they couldn’t refurbish holles st. It’s a wonderful old building full of character that will probably be sold off to one of the law firms.
Character doesn’t make a good hospital…
A wonderful old building. That’s the very reason why they are moving.
In saying that myself ant my daughter were both born in the same room. She was born the day after my 30th.
National Maternity Hospital Board meetings will now officially start with a decade of the rosary…
Archbishop of Dublin is already their patron.
@Liam Kennedy: Cos bishops know all about making babies…thought they banished him to south america?
@Get Lost Eircodes: I was also under the impression that the board of St Vincent’s was far more conservative than HS and potentially a source of problems if/when more liberal policies are to be adopted.
Will it actually be built, opened and made operational?
This is a great result for the mothers-to-be in the catchment of the NMH. The co-location with SVUH guarantees better patient outcomes for emergency cases, as well as better transport options for routine cases.
The “National Maternity Hospital” is a somewhat inflated title. It is the largest maternity hospital in the State but its intended catchment is only intended to be south of the Liffey.
The proposed National Children’s Hospital is just that, however, and should be located in the most optimal location to allow accessibility to children (and their parents) from the entire country. It should also be collocates with a general hospital with the necessary skills mix. St. James’s Hospital probably meets the latter criteria, it doesn’t in any way meet the former. In fact, I’d go so far to say St. James’s should be relocated out westward closer to the M50. There is still a requirement within the City centre for acute and emergency care, perhaps these functions could remain within the city in a satellite hospital, but the current location for St. James’s is not fit for purpose as a general hospital, let alone a Children’s Hospital.
what is the point of having a national maternity hospital. We have 19 maternity hospitals in Ireland all doing a great job.
I don’t believe all 19 are doing a great job.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/safety-statements-for-19-maternity-units-published-385219.html
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