The International Monetary Fund’s senior official in Afghanistan and four United Nations workers were among 21 people killed in a suicide bomb attack near a Lebanese restaurant in Kabul.
The La Taverna du Liban targeted in yesterday’s attack in the Afghan capital was popular with foreign nationals, Afghan officials and business people, the city’s police chief Mohammad Zahir Zahir said in a phone interview. The toll included 13 foreigners and eight Afghans, he said.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in an e-mailed statement that it targeted Germans and other foreign nationals dining in the restaurant.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack “in the strongest terms,” according to a statement released by the world body confirming the four deaths. “Targeted attacks against civilians are completely unacceptable and are in flagrant breach of international humanitarian law,” according to the UN statement.
Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said it was a “cowardly and murderous attack.” Interpol will do “everything in its power to help the Afghan authorities bring those responsible to justice,” Noble said in an e-mailed statement.
Victims Named
The victims included Canadian, Russian and Lebanese nationals, Zahir said. Two people were wounded, he said.
Two British nationals known to be among the dead have been named as Simon Chase and Del Singh, a U.K. opposition Labour Party European Parliament election candidate.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said Singh, whose full name was Dhamender Singh Phangurha, “dedicated his life to working with people across the world who needed his support,” the Press Association reported. Chase was a former British soldier who had moved to Kabul to work in the security industry, PA said.
Two private U.S. citizens were among the victims, the U.S. embassy said in a statement on its Twitter account.
The attack happened around 7:25 p.m. in the Wazir Akbar Khan district of the city, which houses embassies, foreign non-governmental organizations and the headquarters of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.
Shattered Windows
A single heavy explosion followed an exchange of gunfire between Afghan security forces and militants. After the explosion, two militants entered the restaurant’s kitchen and began shooting, Zahir said. The two were shot dead later by Afghan forces, he said.
The explosion shattered windows of Norway’s and other nearby embassies in the same block as the restaurant, Gul Agha, an eyewitness, said in a phone interview.
The IMF said its resident representative in Afghanistan, Wabel Abdallah, was killed in the attack. Abdallah, 60, had served in the position since 2008, the fund said in a statement.
“This is tragic news, and we at the fund are all devastated,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in the statement.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington yesterday that while the U.S. was still gathering information on the attack, all American embassy personnel were accounted for.
Reduced Presence
The attack took place as Afghan President Hamid Karzai weighs signing a bilateral security accord with the U.S. that would allow a reduced presence of foreign troops. President Barack Obama’s administration says the deal must be completed quickly if the U.S. is to keep any forces in the country after most combat troops pull out at the end of the year.
The bombing was the third attack in the Afghan capital in less than two weeks. On Jan. 4, Taliban forces detonated a grenade near Camp Eggers, a U.S. military base in the heart of Kabul, resulting in no casualties. On Jan. 12, a Taliban bomber on a bicycle blew himself up near an Afghan police convoy, wounding six policemen.
“This violence is unacceptable and must stop immediately,” Jan Kubis, head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said in a separate statement condemning the attacks.
To contact the reporters on this story: Eltaf Najafizada in Kabul, Afghanistan at enajafizada1@bloomberg.net; Sangwon Yoon in United Nations at syoon32@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: John Walcott at jwalcott9@bloomberg.net; Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net
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