{"id":24750,"date":"2016-04-20T02:11:50","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T02:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/brazen-taliban-attack-in-kabul-leaves-30-dead\/"},"modified":"2016-04-20T02:11:39","modified_gmt":"2016-04-20T02:11:39","slug":"brazen-taliban-attack-in-kabul-leaves-30-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/brazen-taliban-attack-in-kabul-leaves-30-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazen Taliban attack in Kabul leaves 30 dead, hundreds wounded"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{Assault near ministry marks the first major Taliban attack in the capital this year.}<\/p>\n<p>At least 30 people were killed and hundreds wounded when a Taliban truck bomb tore through central Kabul and a fierce firefight broke out Tuesday, a week after the insurgents launched their annual spring offensive.<\/p>\n<p>The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a densely crowded neighbourhood, which sent clouds of acrid smoke billowing into the sky and rattled windows several kilometres away.<\/p>\n<p>The brazen assault near the defence ministry marks the first major Taliban attack in the Afghan capital since the insurgents announced the start of this year\u2019s fighting season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the suicide attackers blew up an explosives-laden truck in a public parking lot next to a government building,\u201d Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe second attacker engaged security forces in a gun battle before being gunned down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said 30 people, including women and children, were killed in the attack and warned that the toll could rise further.<\/p>\n<p>He added that more than 320 were wounded, with many of them battling for their lives in hospital.<\/p>\n<p>The pitched firefight appeared to die down several hours after the powerful explosion, but some security officials expressed concern that other bombers may still be on the loose.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw wounded people lying on the road and screaming helplessly,\u201d said Sadiqullah, who runs a tea stall near the building which was attacked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was devastating. We are fed up with such attacks. How long must ordinary civilians suffer like this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The interior ministry said hundreds of kilogrammes of explosives were used in the bombing, the deadliest so far this year in the Afghan capital.<\/p>\n<p>The scene of the attack was littered with upturned cars, many of them mangled and charred.<\/p>\n<p>Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed their fighters had managed to enter the offices of the National Directorate of Security, the main spy agency.<\/p>\n<p>Sediqqi conceded that one of the attackers managed to breach the compound.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-11814 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/kabul.jpg\" alt=\"Afghan security personnel inspect the site of a car bomb attack at the gate of a government office in the Puli Mahmood Khan neighbourhood of Kabul on April 19, 2016. A powerful Taliban car bomb followed by a fierce firefight left 30 people dead and hundred wounded.\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Assault near ministry marks the first major Taliban attack in the capital this year.} At least 30 people were killed and hundreds wounded when a Taliban truck bomb tore through central Kabul and a fierce firefight broke out Tuesday, a week after the insurgents launched their annual spring offensive. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24750"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24750"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}