Eight killed in ISIS hit on Nato in Kabul

Kabul: A powerful blast targeting an armoured NATO convoy in Kabul killed at least eight people and wounded 28 on Wednesday, including three coalition troops, officials said, in an attack claimed by the ISIS.

The explosion, which came during morning rush hour on a busy road near the US embassy and NATO headquarters, killed “mostly” civilians, an interior ministry spokesman said.

Three coalition service members received “non-life threatening wounds” but were in stable condition, a spokesman for US Forces-Afghanistan said. The attack, claimed by ISIS via its Amaq propaganda agency, comes three weeks after the US dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on the group’s hideouts in eastern Afghanistan.

The blast also comes after the Taliban launched their “spring offensive”, heralding a surge in fighting as the US seeks to craft a new Afghan strategy and NATO mulls boosting troop levels to break the “stalemate”.

The attack, which ISIS said was a suicide car bomb and NATO said was an improvised explosive device (IED), damaged two of the convoy’s heavily armoured vehicles and left a small crater in the road. MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles, which are designed to withstand large explosions, are routinely used by international forces moving around Kabul.

At least three civilian cars were also damaged, with one ablaze, while windows were shattered up to several hundred metres away. Firefighters and ambulances rushed survivors to hospital as President Ashraf Ghani slammed the blast as a “criminal act”.

Afghan analyst Ahmad Muradi said that whether attacks were carried out by ISIS or the Taliban, “the result is the same: it makes the government and its international supporters tired”.