16 dead in Kabul hospital attack; 24 killed in funeral bombing

Gunmen disguised as police attacked a hospital in the Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday, killing 16 people including two newborn babies from a maternity clinic run by the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders.

In a separate attack the same day, a suicide bomber struck the funeral of a police commander, attended by government officials and a member of parliament, in the eastern province of Nangahar, killing at least 24 people and injuring 68. Authorities said that toll could rise, reports Reuters.

Islamic State Khorasan, the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State militant group, claimed responsibility for the Nangahar bombing, the SITE Intelligence Group reported.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report by SITE, which tracks online jihadist activity.

However, there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Kabul attack.

The Taliban, Afghanistan’s main Islamist insurgency group which says it has halted attacks on cities under a US troop withdrawal deal, denied involvement in both.

The Islamic State militant group operates in Nangahar and has carried out a number of high-profile attacks in Kabul in recent months. On Monday security forces arrested its regional leader in the capital.

The violence, as the country battles the coronavirus pandemic, risks derailing movement towards US-brokered peace talks between the Taliban and an Afghan government long sceptical of the insurgents’ renunciation of attacks.

President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attacks and said he had ordered the military to switch to offensive mode rather than the defensive stance it had adopted as the United States withdraws troops and tries to broker the talks.

“In order to provide security for public places and to thwart attacks and threats from the Taliban and other terrorist groups, I am ordering Afghan security forces to switch from an active defence mode to an offensive one and to start their operations against the enemies,” he said in a televised speech.

Meanwhile National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib said on Twitter: “there seems little point in continuing to engage Taliban in peace talks”.

In a statement, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned “the two horrific terrorist attacks” in the strongest terms, noted the Taliban had denied responsibility and said the lack of a peace deal left the country vulnerable to such attacks.

Pompeo also described the stalled peace effort, which planned for intra-Afghan peace talks to begin on March 10 but have yet to occur, as “a critical opportunity for Afghans to ... build a united front against the menace of terrorism.”

The Pentagon declined comment on Ghani’s stated intent to restart offensive operations, saying only that the US military continued to reserve the right to defend Afghan security forces if they are attacked by the Taliban.