On 27 January 2018, an

ambulance An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport. Ambulances are used to respond to medi ...

was used as a

vehicle-borne improvised explosive device A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roughly divided ...

near Sidarat Square in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. At least 103 people were killed and 235 others wounded in the attack. The

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

claimed responsibility for the attack.

Bombing

On 27 January 2018,

insurgent An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric warfare, asymmetric na ...

s blew up an

explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...

s-packed ambulance near an

interior ministry An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

building on a busy and heavily-guarded street in the Afghan capital Kabul during

rush hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday: on ...

. The bombers detonated the explosives while passing through the second in a series of checkpoints near Kabul's embassies and

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

buildings including the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

embassies A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...

. The

explosion An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known ...

was so powerful that the shock was felt around the capital, collapsing buildings and destroying façades in the immediate area. The Jamhuriat Hospital, government offices, businesses and a school are close to the site of the blast. It was the third major attack in seven days, following shootings at an aid agency in

Jalalabad Jalalabad (; Dari/ ps, جلال‌آباد, ) is the fifth-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 356,274, and serves as the capital of Nangarhar Province in the eastern part of the country, about from the capital Kabul. Jala ...

, Nangarhar Province, and at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul. Officials confirmed that the bomb was hidden in the ambulance and

detonate Detonation () is a type of combustion involving a supersonic exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front propagating directly in front of it. Detonations propagate supersonically through shock waves with s ...

d at a second

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

checkpoint. Its blast also destroyed vehicles, shops, and buildings nearby. The attack occurred on a street, locally known as

Chicken Street Chicken Street ( prs, کوچه مرغ ''Koch-e Murgha'') is a narrow street located in the Shahr-e Naw district of Kabul east of the Asamayi. It has been an iconic shopping street in the city and popular with foreigners, famous for its carpets, ...

, near a building run by the Interior Ministry. Various government agencies have offices there and the road had security checkpoints in place. The coordinator for the Italian aid group Emergency that operates a trauma center described the event as a "

massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

". According to reports, the vehicle was stopped at a second security checkpoint after passing the primary one claiming they had a patient. When police attempted to stop the vehicle from going further, the driver detonated the bomb. Relatives were reported to be queuing at the city

morgue A morgue or mortuary (in a hospital or elsewhere) is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal. In modern times, corpses have cus ...

. The scene of the attack was described as one of carnage with shattered bodies, many unidentifiable, lying all over.

Perpetrators

The

claimed responsibility for the attack. The Afghan government described it as a

crime against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the c ...

, and accused

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

of providing support to the attackers. Pakistan denies supporting

militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin " ...

s carrying out attacks in Afghanistan.

Aftermath

The third major attack in Afghanistan within a week,

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Ashraf Ghani Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (born 19 May 1949) is an Afghan politician, academic, and economist who served as the president of Afghanistan from September 2014 until August 2021, when his government was overthrown by the Taliban. Born in L ...

again blamed Pakistan for failing to move against Taliban

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

s. Ghani vowed revenge against the Taliban in retaliation. In addition, Ghani sent an Afghan intelligence delegation to Pakistan to hand over "undeniable" evidence that the terrorists of the bombing were planning the attack within Pakistan. Peace prospects with the Taliban also took a downward turn following increasing outrage over the attacks, with a presidential spokesman saying that the Taliban "has lost the opportunity for peace talks". The use of an ambulance to deliver the bomb was described as an act of

perfidy In the context of war, perfidy is a form of deception in which one side promises to act in good faith (such as by raising a flag of truce) with the intention of breaking that promise once the unsuspecting enemy is exposed (such as by coming out ...

by the

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...

References

{{Taliban Ambulance bombing 2018 murders in Afghanistan 2018 building bombings Ambulance bombing 21st-century mass murder in Afghanistan Attacks on buildings and structures in 2018 Ambulance bombing

Ambulance An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport. Ambulances are used to respond to medi ...

Car and truck bombings in the 2010s Islamic terrorist incidents in 2018 January 2018 crimes in Asia Ambulance bombing Massacres in 2018 Suicide bombings in 2018

Suicide car and truck bombings in Afghanistan

Terrorist incidents in Afghanistan in 2018 War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)

Bombing

Perpetrators

Aftermath

See also

References