The Taliban claimed responsibility and said the bombing targeted a building used by the Interior Ministry and High Peace Council, a body set up in 2010 to negotiate with insurgents. A number of police officers were killed or wounded, a statement by the group added.
After the attack, dozens of people waited outside the Emergency Hospital for news of their loved ones, including Mohammadullah, a young travel agent whose friend was missing.
“Our government is doing nothing for us,” Mohammadullah, who like many Afghans uses just one name, said. “People are living in fear—they can’t go to their jobs. Instead of getting better, it’s getting worse day-by-day, and the attacks are getting deadlier.”
Officials expect the death toll from the attack, already one of the highest of the war, to rise. The deadliest attack happened last May, when a truck-bomb attributed to the Taliban-allied Haqqani Network exploded near the German Embassy in Kabul, killing over 150.
The U.S. has recently increased airstrikes against the Taliban and other militant groups in Afghanistan in the hopes of breaking a stalemate and getting the insurgents to the negotiating table. After a recent visit to Afghanistan, the U.S.’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said the aggressive policy was working and that peace talks were closer than ever.
Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah condemned Saturday’s bombing, calling it, “insane, inhuman, heinous and a war crime.”
“We will bring its perpetrators to justice and take necessary measures to avoid such barbarism in the future,” Abdullah said on Twitter.
