Deadly attack targets Indians in Afghanistan

By The Associated Press Comments 0
Published: October 9, 2009

KABUL — A suicide bomber detonated his vehicle outside the Indian Embassy in the center of the Afghan capital Thursday, killing 17 people. This was the second major attack in the city in less than a month. The Afghan Foreign Ministry hinted at Pakistani involvement — a charge Pakistan denied.

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The blast occurred a day after the war entered its ninth year and as President Barack Obama was deliberating a request by the top commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal for up to 40,000 more troops. Opponents of a troop increase want to shift focus to missile strikes and special operations against al-Qaida-linked groups in Pakistan.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack — the second against the Indian Embassy in two years — and specified the Indians were the target.

In New Delhi, India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said the driver of the sport utility vehicle "came up to the outer perimeter wall of the embassy in a car loaded with explosives.”

Rao did not say who the Indians believed was responsible for the attack, which occurred about 8:30 a.m. along a commercial street that is also home to the Interior Ministry.

However, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said the attack "was planned and implemented from outside of Afghan borders” by the same groups responsible for the July 2008 suicide bombing at the Indian Embassy that killed more than 60 people.

The Taliban did not say why it targeted the Indian Embassy. India and Pakistan, archrivals since the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent, are competing for influence in Afghanistan among rival ethnic groups.

The blast was the deadliest attack in Kabul since Sept. 17, when a suicide bomber killed 16 people, including six Italian soldiers and 10 Afghan civilians, on a road in the center of the capital.

The Interior Ministry said 15 civilians and two policemen were killed in Thursday’s blast. At least 76 people were wounded, the ministry said.