Afghanistan : Defence minister’s home attacked by gunmen
At least four people have been killed after militants attacked the home of the Afghan defence minister in Kabul. Bismillah Khan Mohammadi was not at home on Tuesday night as gunmen detonated a car bomb and fired shots near the heavily-fortified Green Zone.
His family was safely evacuated and the gunmen killed in the audacious attack. It comes as fighting continues in other key Afghan cities, with the UN Security Council calling for an immediate end to the violence.
A massive blast rocked Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul on Tuesday evening. The blast was reportedly a suicide attack carried out using a car bomb around 8 pm (local time) in downtown Kabul, not far from the heavily fortified ‘Green Zone’. Initial reports indicate that the blast took place at Ansari Square in Shahr-e Naw in north-west Kabul. Officials are yet to confirm whether the blast led to loss of life.
This is the same area that houses the residences of Afghanistan’s acting Defence Minister, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, and the country’s former vice president, Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum.
Less than two hours after the car bomb detonated, another loud blast followed by smaller explosions and rapid gunfire again shook Kabul, also near the high-security Green Zone that houses several embassies, including the US mission.
Even as the blasts and gunfire rocked the city, crowds of people marched down Kabul’s streets and took to rooftops chanting “Allahu Akbar” and “Death to the Taliban” in support of Afghan forces battling the insurgents in three regional capitals.
No one immediately took responsibility for the attack, but it came as Taliban insurgents have been pressing ahead with an offensive that is putting pressure on the provincial capitals in the south and west of the country.
