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| Photo Credit:Reuters. |
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bombing outside the Russian Embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday killed two members of the embassy staff and at least one Afghan civilian in a rare attack on a foreign diplomatic mission in Afghanistan.
The blast
went off at the entrance to the embassy’s consular section, where Afghans were
waiting for news about their visas, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry
and the state news agency RIA Novosti. A Russian diplomat had emerged from the
building to call out the names of candidates for visas when the explosion
occurred, the agency said.
The Islamic
State group claimed responsibility late Monday, saying a militant wearing an
explosive belt blew up at the embassy entrance.
It was the
latest in a series of bombings and other attacks since the Taliban seized power
a year ago, deposing a Western-backed government and capping their 20-year
insurgency.
Monday’s
bombing, however, appeared to the first to target a foreign diplomatic mission
in Kabul since the Taliban takeover. The campaign of attacks has largely
targeted Taliban positions or mosques of minority groups, particularly Shiites.
They have largely been blamed on the Islamic State group’s affiliate in
Afghanistan, which opposes the Taliban and harbors a virulent hatred of Shiites,
considering them heretics.
The Russian
mission is one of only a couple of international missions still operating and
performing consular services in Kabul — and the only European one. Most nations
closed their embassies when the Taliban captured Kabul in August 2021 as the
U.S. and NATO withdrew their troops. No country has recognized the Taliban
government.
Kremlin
spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the explosion “a terrorist act, absolutely
unacceptable.”
Russia’s
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the embassy enhanced its security after the
attack and additional Taliban authorities, including intelligence agents, were
brought in.
“Let’s hope
that the organizers of this terrorist act and its perpetrators will be
punished,” Lavrov said.
The Russian
Foreign Ministry said an unknown militant set off an explosive device right
outside the consular section’s entrance. It said two members of the diplomatic
mission were killed, “and there are also casualties among Afghan citizens.”
Kabul police
spokesman Khalid Zadran said at least one Afghan civilian was killed and 10
others wounded.
Zadran said
security forces saw and shot the suicide bomber before he could get closer to
the crowd outside the embassy. It was not immediately clear if the attacker was
able to set off the blast before being shot, or if the gunfire detonated the
explosives.
Attacks on
embassies were rare even during the two-decade war between the Taliban and the
Western-backed government. In 2017, the Taliban set off a massive truck bomb in
a district where many government buildings and embassies were located, killing
more than 90 Afghans and heavily damaging the nearby German Embassy. In 2015, a
Taliban car bomb went off by the Spanish Embassy, killing a security guard.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin said in late June that Russia is trying to build
relations with the Taliban and that Russia wants to see all the ethnic groups
in Afghanistan take part in running the country.
Although
Moscow has designated the Taliban as a terrorist group, the Taliban have
representation in Russia and a delegation attended the recent St. Petersburg
International Economic Forum.
Litvinova
reported from Tallinn, Estonia.