Kabul - At least 19 people were killed as a suicide bomber on
foot set off his explosives at the entrance of the Afghan Supreme
Court in Kabul as employees left for home on Tuesday, an official
said.
"Kabul ambulances have transported 41 injured people to hospitals
around the city," Wahidullah Majroh, a spokesman for the Afghan
Health Ministry, said.
Abdul Jamil, a resident of the area, said he had brought his son to a
pharmacy nearby when, "A strong boom shook to store and all the
medicine on the shelves fell down." Jamil added that panicked people
ran out of shops and down the road.
Army ambulances near the site where a suicide bomber blew himself up next to the gate of Afghan Supreme Court. Photo: Rahmat Alizadah/Xinhua
No group, including the Taliban, has yet claimed responsibility for
the attack.
Taliban militants regularly attack courts and members of the justice
system in Afghanistan as they want to see the country under sharia
only.
Police officers inspect the site of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo: Rahmat Gul/AP
According to the United Nations annual report on the protection of
civilians in armed conflict that was published on Monday, there were
16 attacks directed at judges, prosecutors and judicial staff last
year.
In one incident, five people were killed and 19 others were wounded
after Taliban gunmen attacked a courthouse in Afghanistan's central
Logar province early in June 2106.