Taliban blows up ambulance, killing almost 100

  • 28/01/2018
Kabul
The Red Cross in Afghanistan says the use of an ambulance in the attack could be illegal under international humanitarian law. Photo credit: Getty

An ambulance bomb attack in the Afghan capital Kabul has killed at least 95 and wounded 158, a health ministry official says.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for Saturday's blast, a week after it claimed an attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul in which more than 20 people were killed.

The suicide bomber blew up the ambulance at a police checkpoint.

An interior ministry spokesman blamed the Haqqani network, a militant group affiliated with the Taliban which Afghan and Western officials consider to be behind many of the biggest attacks on urban targets in Afghanistan.

As medical teams struggled to handle the casualties pouring in, some of the wounded were laid out in the open, with intravenous drips set up next to them in hospital gardens.

"It's a massacre," said Dejan Panic, coordinator in Afghanistan for the Italian aid group Emergency, which runs a nearby trauma hospital.

The Red Cross in Afghanistan says the use of an ambulance in the attack could be illegal under international humanitarian law.

Reuters