Around 41 people were killed and dozens wounded in a suicide blast targeting Shias in Kabul on Thursday, officials said, with chaotic scenes at the city’s hospitals as anguished families sought loved ones.
The Islamic State group (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the gruesome assault, which happened in the same building as the Afghan Voice Agency, a media outlet which earlier reports had suggested could have been the target.
Deputy Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told that the attack — the deadliest since a Shia mosque bombing in October that killed more than 50 worshippers — was aimed at the Tabayan cultural centre in the west of the city. “The suicide attacker detonated himself during a gathering at Tabayan cultural centre causing a lot of casualties,” Rahimi said.
The main explosion was followed by two smaller bomb blasts as victims and survivors were leaving the scene.
Rahimi said the gathering was organised to mark the 38th anniversary of Soviet invasion in Afghanistan. An Afghan Voice Agency journalist told AFP that more than 100 people were at the event in the building’s basement.
There were 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 bodies of their loved ones.
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.
Thursday’s assault comes days after a suicide bomber killed six civilians in an attack near an Afghan intelligence agency compound in the city, which was claimed by IS.
The Middle Eastern jehadist group 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 Shia minority.