19 dead as suicide bomber targets Afghan Supreme Court

Security forces stand guard at the site of a a suicide attack on the Supreme Court in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo: Massoud Hossaini/AP

Security forces stand guard at the site of a a suicide attack on the Supreme Court in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo: Massoud Hossaini/AP

Published Feb 7, 2017

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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. 

dpa

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