44 people, including Indian Defence Attache and Counsellor killed in Kabul suicide attack; 46 coalition soldiers killed in June, highest casualty figure in a month since 2001; IASF air strike reportedly kills 15 civilians in eastern Afghanistan
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Whatsapp
  • Linkedin
  • Print

    • Over 140 people were injured and 44 killed in a massive suicide car bomb attack outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul on July 7. Among those killed included the Indian Defence Attache Brig. R.D. Mehta, Counselor Venkateswara Rao, two ITBP personnel Ajai Pathania and Roop Singh, and 5 Embassy staff. While the Taliban was suspected to be behind the attack, an Afghan Interior Ministry spokesperson Abdul H Ashiq stated that the attack was carried out “in co-ordination and consultation with an active intelligence service in the region" - an obvious reference to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)1.

    The dastardly attack was condemned by the United States, European Union, Russia, and Pakistan, among others. While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asserted that the attack would not deter India from continuing its reconstruction and rehabilitation work in the country, Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed his condolences to Dr. Singh2. US Ambassador David Mulford asserted that such acts would only “strengthen the resolve of both our nations to defeat terror around the world3.” EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana termed the attack an attempt “to undermine the process of stabilization and reconstruction in Afghanistan4.”

    Meanwhile, June accounted for the death of 46 coalition troops, the highest casualty count in a month since the Afghan operations began in 2001. In a sign of the growing sophistication of the insurgent attacks, a Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in the week. The Pentagon in a report released in the previous week had also noted that the militants were increasingly employing tactics first used by Iraqi insurgents - in particular, greater use of roadside bombs. Attacks of this nature had increased to 2,615 in 2007, from 1,931 in 20065.

    In other developments, more than 15 civilians were reportedly killed in an IASF air strike in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nuristan on July 5, giving rise to renewed concerns about further alienating the local population. A spokesman for the American-led coalition however stated that the air strikes had targeted militants involved in an mortar attack on an American military base6.

    Top