Suicide squad kill foreigners

The once beautiful front of a shopping centre about 22 metres away was blown out, but the streets were mostly deserted. Most people were still asleep on the start of the weekend, which is also part of a religious holiday for most of the population in the area. Branches torn from trees and the charred remains of a car engine littered the streets. Ambulances ploughed through roads carpeted in glass to take the wounded to hospital.

This was the scene of the after effect on a suicide squad who picked two hotels “used by foreigners” as targets.

"The first explosion was the loudest,” said Ahmed Shah, 28. “I ran outside and saw police covered with dust all over their faces. They told me to go inside. Then they thought I was a suicide bomber trying to escape and the guards had to help me get in.” Ahmed Continued.

At least six Indians and an Italian diplomat were among 16 people killed yesterday when a Taleban suicide squad stormed central Kabul. A French film-maker who had arrived less than 24 hours earlier and three Afghan policemen were also killed when a series of blasts, followed by more than three hours of gunfire, rocked an upmarket shopping district.

Officials reported that 32 people were injured when three Taliban militants launched a coordinated attack just after 6.32am. A 13ft crater marked the spot of the first massive explosion, a make shift car bomb, outside a guesthouse that was popular with Indian doctors.

The Hamid Hotel and the Park Residence were less than half a kilometre from the Indian Embassy, which has been attacked repeatedly.

President Karzai naturally condemned the assault as a “terrorist attack against Indian citizens” who were helping the Afghan people and said that it would not affect relations between Delhi and Kabul.
S. M. Krishna, the Indian Foreign Minister, called the attacks barbaric and a matter of concern. “These are the handiwork of those who are desperate to undermine the friendship between India and Afghanistan,” he said.

Afghan and US officials have accused the Pakistani intelligence service of involvement in previous attacks against the Indian Embassy.