One person has been killed and six others wounded after a car bomb exploded outside the gates of the CARE NGO in Kabul Monday, Afghan Ministry of the Interior spokesman Sediq Sediqi told CNN.
A statement from the ministry added that the attackers were wearing suicide vests.
“A group of three suicide bombers equipped with light and heavy rounds of ammunition, suicide vests and an explosives-laden vehicle attacked the humanitarian organization (Care) in Shar Naw area, Kabul City,” the statement reads.
The NGO is part of the CARE global network, a group of independent organizations which work to “save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice,” according to the group’s mission. It has a special focus on women’s and girls’ rights.
One or two of the attackers entered the compound following the blast, Sediqi said, but he confirmed that they were killed by special forces and the attack has ended. Forty-two people, including ten foreigners, were rescued by Afghan security forces during the attack, Sediqi said.
The Ministry condemns “all acts of violence as these heinous acts go against the values of humanity as well values of peaceful Afghans,” the statement added.
The attack on the foreign NGO comes on the heels of a day of deadly bombings in the capital. On Monday, three blasts rocked the city killing at least two dozen people and injuring around 100 others. A spate of deadly bombings have plagued Kabul for months.
Taliban terrorists claimed responsibility for the first two bomb blasts Monday. Among the dead, which included both security forces and civilians, were the head of Kabul’s second police district and his deputy, an official said.
Militants have also hit other high-profile foreign targets in the country in recent weeks. Two weeks ago, gunmen stormed the campus of the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, detonating explosives and shooting at students, staff and faculty.
Thirteen died in that attack, including seven students, three police, two security guards and a doorman. Thirty students were injured. No group has claimed responsibility.
Two professors, an American and an Australian, were abducted from the university earlier this month. Their whereabouts remain unknown.
Earlier in August, six tourists from the United States, Britain and Germany traveling in Herat province in western Afghanistan were injured when a rocket struck the vans they were traveling in, according to an Afghan Army spokesman. An Afghani driver was also injured in that attack.
Running an NGO in Afghanistan is fraught with danger and difficulties. In October last year a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Kunduz in the country’s north was hit by a US airstrike, resulting in 42 deaths. In April the Pentagon said that 16 military personnel would be disciplined for the deadly incident but maintained that it was not a war crime because it resulted from unintentional human error and equipment failure.
