Taliban Suicide Bomb Attack on International Airport Kills at Least Three
KABUL, Afghanistan, May 17 (UPI) — Two Afghan teenage girls and one British citizen died in a suicide bomb attack carried out by the Taliban at Kabul’s Hamid KarzaiInternational Airport on Sunday.
The attack at the airport’s entrance targeted a training vehicle belonging to E.U. Police Mission, a civilian operation hoping to help develop Afghanistan‘s police. At least 18 people were wounded.
The teenage girls killed in the Taliban attack were described as bystanders.
The targeted training vehicle where the British victim was traveling carried three others, who suffered non-life threatening injuries.
“We can confirm that a British national was tragically killed in a terrorist attack in Kabul this morning,” a spokesman for the United Kingdom’s Foreign Commonwealth Office said. “We stand ready to provide consular assistance to the family.”
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack through an email statement.
“The target of the suicide car bomb attack was a convoy of foreign invaders,” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid wrote.
The attack on the airport follows a recent Taliban gunman attack on the Park Palace Guest House hotel, also in the Afghan capital of Kabul, killing at least 14 people.
Local police said armed men entered the hotel around 8:30 p.m. local time Wednesday as guests were eating dinner. The victims include four foreign nationals from India, two from Pakistan, one from the United Kingdom with a dual Afghan nationality, one from Italy, one from Kazakhstan and one U.S. citizen.
The gunmen, armed with AK-47 rifles, were reportedly killed in a firefight with police forces.
Peace talks between government representatives and the Taliban began about two weeks ago.
