Suicide bomb targets Kabul NATO headquarters

KABUL – A suicide bomber has struck outside ISAF headquarters in Kabul, killing at least six people, officials said.

The attack on Friday, which officials say was carried out by a child, also wounded five others on a national public holiday.

The Taliban took responsibility for the attack, saying they had despatched a bomber to target the Kabul offices of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

“One of our mujahideen targeted an important intelligence office used for recruiting Americans and Afghans for spying,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

The bomber blew himself up near the entrance of Camp Eggers, a NATO spokeswoman said, referring to a sprawling base that is home to 2,500 coalition trainers.

The Taliban however claimed that the attacker was 28 years old, and not a child as claimed by officials.

Young children, mostly street hawkers, were among the dead, Sediq Sediqqi, the interior ministry spokesperson, said.

Pieces of flesh and splattered blood lay on the street near the base, where small bodies were seen being lifted into ambulances, witnesses said.

Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for the US-led international military alliance, said all coalition compounds in Kabul were currently secure. He said he was not aware of any casualties among members of the coalition.

The attack comes a day after the US desgnated the Haqqani network as a terrorist organisation. The group is affiliated to the Taliban and opposes the Afghan government, operating on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Sediqqi speculated on his Twitter feed that Saturday’s attack, just before noon, may have been carried out by the Haqqanis.

The attack took place as government dignitaries assembled in Kabul to mark 11 years since the death of Ahmad Shah Massoud, an iconic anti-Taliban commander two days before 9/11.

It also comes just days after Afghan authorities said that they cracked down on hundreds of soldiers believed to have links to the Taliban in a bid to crush the rise of alleged insider attacks.

The announcement on Wednesday came after Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO chief, expressed his concerns to President Hamid Karzai over the recent increase in the so-called green-on-blue attacks.