Security situation is deteriorating in Kabul as fighting intensifies across Afghanistan
-
Alaina
- . August 6, 2021
- . Update: August 6, 2021 6:37 pm
A car bomb exploded near the Afghan Ministry of Defense early this week, followed by a firefight and another explosion with another shooting. In the sights of the car bomb driven by a suicide bomber was Minister Bismillah Mohammadi, who was unharmed.
The area is in the capital’s center, where government offices, embassies, and humanitarian agencies are located. The UK and the US accused the Taliban for the attack. The NGO Emergency, in a tweet, speaks of a “strong explosion at the Bakhtawar Palace, not far from our hospital, and an ongoing armed conflict.” “So far – he adds – we have received six patients.”
According to Tolo News, the explosion was caused by a car bomb that targeted the residence of the Minister of Defense, Bismillah Mohammadi, who was not there at the time. Heavy clashes between Afghan forces and the Taliban in several Afghan cities followed the blast. The Afghan forces, in particular, are fighting the Taliban in Lashkar Gah in the Helmand province, where the army called on residents to evacuate and heralded an offensive.
After the attacks, hundreds of civilians in Kabul took to the streets. They chanted “God is the greatest” to express their support for Afghan government forces and opposition to the Taliban. The explosions in Kabul are the latest episode of a violence spiral that has hit Afghanistan in recent months due to the offensive of the Taliban. They have expanded their conquests to more than half of the national territory after the withdrawal of international forces.
The offensive ended after nearly four hours. According to initial reports, four gunmen were involved in the attack, the ministry said. General Bismillah Mohammadi, interim head of the Ministry of National Defense, said he and his family were not injured in the attack on his home but that some of his bodyguards were injured. In the past 48 hours, at least 40 civilians died, and 118 others were wounded in fighting between insurgents and Afghan forces in the besieged city of Lashkar Gah, in the south of the country. The army has asked the population to leave the city to launch the military counter-offensive against the Taliban.
The incident bears the “hallmarks” of the Taliban, and one of Washington’s concerns is that a civil war could break out in the country. A spokesman for the US State Department, Ned Price, stated. If the Taliban try to renounce their commitment to the Doha peace talks, “they will become international pariahs … and the concern of all of us, one of the main fears of the many we have, is that this will lead to a civil war,” said Price.
