(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - A suicide bomber blew himself up inside the compound of the main military hospital in the Afghan capital on Saturday, killing six people and wounding 23 others, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry said.
In the latest sign of rising violence in the country, the attack targeted a tent where medical students were having lunch on the grounds of the Mohammad Daud Khan hospital, which lies in a mostly secure part of Kabul near the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic missions.
The ministry spokesman, Gen. Mohammad Zaher Azimi, said that all the dead and wounded were civilians training to become military doctors and that an investigation has been launched to determine how the bomber made his way through the secure complex.
The Taliban, which has spearheaded the insurgency against the Afghan government and foreign troops, asserted responsibility for the bombing. Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the militant group, did not say whether the bomber had made his own way through the facility or had done so after infiltrating Afghan security forces.
Rogue Afghan forces and Taliban infiltrators have carried out a string of attacks in joint Afghan and foreign bases across Afghanistan in recent weeks, killing both Afghan and foreign troops.
The deadliest attack was mounted last month when a veteran Afghan pilot killed nine American mentors, one of them a contractor, at Kabul’s airport. Earlier this month, a gunbattle erupted inside the Defense Ministry when a suicide bomber tried to kill top ministry officials.
The attacks have raised questions about the ability of Afghan forces to gradually take over from the NATO-led troops as U.S. forces plan to reduce their presence from July onward.
Overthrown in a U.S.-led invasion backed by Afghan forces, the Taliban has made a comeback in recent years and this month vowed to launch massive spring offensive against Afghan and foreign troops.
/106
