Why Isn’t Anyone Talking About Kabul? Events on May 31, 2017 Explained

Map of blast area of May 31, 2017.

• A MASSIVE suicide bomb RIPPED through a secure area of Kabul at the height of the Wednesday's morning rush hour on May 31, 2017.

• More than 460 wounded, at least 90 dead. *Update on 6/6/2017--death count:150 civilians dead.*

•  It is one of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan since 2001.

• Bomb exploded--concealed in a water delivery truck-- which detonated at 8:22AM in the diplomatic quarter about 400 yards from the German Embassy and the Afghan presidential palace.  The streets were packed with commuters, women shopping and children going to school. 

• At least 11 US citizens hired as contractors were injured at Camp Eggers and 9 Afghan security workers were killed.

• US military says checkpoints prevented truck getting closer to embassies.

• Attackers deliberately targeted the civilian population just a few days into Ramadan -- the most holy month of the Muslim calendar.

• The Taliban has denied responsibility for the blast.

• Afghan intelligence service believes a Pakistani group, the Haqqani militants, who are aligned with the Taliban carried it out--but no group has claimed responsibility yet.

• Layma Tabibi, an Afghan-American who works at a local consulting firm, heard the blast and said a lot of casualties appeared to be from the Roshan telecommunications company.
• “It’s always Afghans," she said, when asked who suffered in such attacks.   "It's always Afghans that are harmed and get killed, rather than who the attacker wants to target.”

*********************************************************************************

Afghans Protest Government After Blast:

• At least four Afghans have been killed as police fired live rounds, teargas, and water cannons  to disperse protesters seeking to march on the presidential palace and demand the government’s resignation after a devastating truck bombing.

• Hundreds of demonstrators calling for the president, Ashraf Ghani, to step down and chanting “death to the Taliban”.

• Afghans are demanding answers from the government over perceived intelligence failures leading to the bombing.

• "If our leaders cannot restore security they should step down.” --Protesters.

• Protesters clashed with police near the site of the explosion on Wednesday in Kabul’s diplomatic quarter.

• Kabul has been on edge since the bombing, which showed militants could strike the highly secure diplomatic district--home to the presidential palace and foreign embassies surrounded by concrete blast walls.

• Ashraf Ghani is expected to approve the execution of 11 Taliban and Haqqani prisoners, apparently in retaliation.

• The Haqqani network, which is long thought to have ties to Pakistan’s military establishment, is led by the Taliban deputy leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani.
• They have carried out numerous attacks in Kabul-- including the 2008 Indian embassy bombing that killed nearly 60 people.

*********************************************************************************

Suicide Bombings  at Funeral for Kabul Bomb Victim:

• At least 7-12 people have been killed and more than 119 wounded in three separate explosions for a funeral for one of the several protesters killed on Friday at a large demonstration calling for the resignation of the government.

• Numbers were likely to rise--given the density of the crowd of more than a thousand people.

• The funeral for Salem Izidyar, the son of the senate deputy speaker.

• It was attended by many high-ranking current and former officials, including the country’s chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah--he was not hurt.

• The first blast--which some attendees said came from an improvised explosive device--went off during the pre-burial prayer.

• It was followed by 2 more, when a pair of suicide bombers detonated their explosives.

• “When I woke up, I saw dust everywhere and dead bodies, bodies that had been burned.”

• The suicide bombers reportedly posed as mourners in the crowd--a spokesperson said “you cannot search everyone” with gatherings involving such large numbers.

• There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the funeral bombs, but Izidyar’s father, Mohammad Alam Izidyar, is a prominent member of the anti-Taliban Jamiat-e Islami party.

*********************************************************************************

Why The Horrific Kabul Bombings Are A Crisis For All Of Afghanistan:

• The devastating bombing this Wednesday morning was confirmation that it has now become one of the most dangerous places in Afghanistan.

• It is another heavy blow to a weak and fractured government.

• The rising tempo of attacks in Kabul pose an outsize threat to the government, the fragile economy, to the foreign support that keeps Afghanistan running, to education, media and civil society, that all cluster in the capital.

• Kabul Bombings on May 31, 2017--3 years after David Cameron declared “mission accomplished” and Barack Obama said the American war in Afghanistan was over, carnage in the heart of Kabul makes it clear that for Afghans there has been no pause in the violence.

• Geographically, Kabul province had the highest number of civilian casualties due to suicide and complex attacks in Kabul city,” the UN mission in Afghanistan said in a report on protection of civilians at the end of April.

• No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
• The target was so unusual for Afghanistan that some analysts think the explosives, which were hidden inside a tanker used to drain sewage reservoirs, may have detonated prematurely.