Asia-Pacific

Bomb explodes outside Russian embassy in Kabul

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack in which two embassy officials were killed

Afghan women walk past the Russian embassy after a suicide attack in Kabul. Photograph: Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty

Mon Sep 5 2022 - 18:25

An explosion outside the Russian embassy in Kabul has killed at least two members of staff, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said. A Taliban spokesman has confirmed the blast.

“An unknown gunman detonated an explosive device in the immediate vicinity of the entrance to the consular section of the Russian embassy in Kabul,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday. “Two employees of the diplomatic mission were killed, and there were casualties among Afghan citizens as well.”

Afghanistan’s Taliban government was investigating the incident, deputy spokesman, Bilal Karimi, said by phone.

The explosion took place about 11am when a suicide bomber approached the embassy, Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said in a text message. Afghan security officials fired at him before the explosion, he added.

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The mission was in close contact with the Afghan security services, who were conducting an investigation, the Russian statement added.

The Taliban had reinforced security around the embassy and Afghan intelligence officials were investigating the incident, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow.

“We hope that those who staged this terrorist act will get the punishment they deserve as soon as possible,” Lavrov said.

The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the attack.

Afghanistan has “close relations with the Russian Federation”, the ministry’s spokesman, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said on Twitter. The government would “not allow the enemies to sabotage relations between both countries with such negative actions”, he added.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

Russia is one of the few countries in the world to have kept its embassy in Kabul open and to invite Taliban diplomats to Moscow after the militant group returned to power a year ago following the chaotic withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.

Russia’s role in Afghanistan since the US pullout had strengthened thanks to its courting of the Taliban, and this was opposed by more radical elements inside the country, said Arkady Dubnov, a Moscow-based Central Asia expert.

“Moscow has succeeded in establishing fairly good co-operation with the Taliban,” he said by phone. “This terrorist act appears aimed at undermining that. – Bloomberg

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