Ambulance Bomb, 2018
In 2018, the end of January was shaken by four attacks in Afghanistan, including three in Kabul. These attacks were perpetrated and claimed by the Taliban and then the Islamic State (IS). The most violent was the explosion of an ambulance bomb. A total of 103 dead and 255 wounded this Saturday, January 27. It follows by a few days the attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul on 20 and 21 January, which had left 25 dead.
Aerial views show the arrival of two ambulances at a first police roadblock.
The first is controlled, the second, supposed to accompany the first, passes through without difficulty. The hospital is halfway between two checkpoints. The ambulances park in the hospital parking lot for twenty minutes, then leave. It is at the second checkpoint that the driver of the second ambulance gets blown up, him, his vehicle, and all life around. The explosion had the most violent consequences, rarely exceeded in recent years.
This attack claimed by the Taliban through the WhatsApp is particularly worrying because it occurred in one of the most secure streets in Kabul. The detonation erupted in the area of the former Ministry of Interior and major embassies. This area is monitored by numerous law enforcement agencies. In fact, a good number of police officers were victims, 5 dead and about 20 injured. The Taliban managed to penetrate high places of power and difficult access. The situation is most alarming, and many fear an upsurge in violence. According to researcher Adam Baczko, since the departure of the U.S. armed forces in 2014, “the Afghan government has been unable to establish its authority beyond the center of the capital. It is all the more complicated when the Afghan police is the most corrupt institution in the country. It facilitates the passage of Taliban whose controlled territories have never been so vast since 2001.
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