By DPA,
Kabul/New Delhi : A powerful explosion killed at least 44 people and wounded scores of others in an apparent suicide attack at the Indian embassy in Kabul Monday, officials said.
Sources in the Afghan interior ministry said at least 44 people were killed in the deadliest suicide bombing since the fall of Taliban regime in 2001.
An official statement by the interior ministry only said that more than 100 people were killed and injured in the incident.
According to the statement, initial findings showed the bomber targeted the Indian embassy.
“Terrorists in cooperation with some secret agencies in the region carried out this attack,” it said.
The victims were mostly civilians including women and children, another official added.
An Indian foreign ministry official confirmed that Indian nationals were among the casualties, and said embassy officials going to work were the target of the attack at about 8.30 a.m. outside the embassy gate.
“The government of India strongly condemns this cowardly terrorist attack on its diplomatic mission in Afghanistan. Such acts of terror will not deter us from fulfilling our commitments to the government and people of Afghanistan,” India’s external affairs ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said in New Delhi.
Sarna said the government was in contact the Indian ambassador in Kabul, who was supervising arrangements for medical assistance.
Five people died on the spot while two died in hospital after a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed car outside the gate of the Indian embassy, according to the Afghan defence ministry.
“The situation is critical and the blast destroyed several vehicles parked around the area,” a witness said.
Following the blast, US troops in Kabul opened fire on a car near the Iranian embassy, injuring at least one person.
An interior ministry spokesman confirmed the incident, saying the US forces were coming to help secure the crime scene.
“A car was coming near to the US forces and US troops opened fire, in result one person was injured,” the spokesman said.