Suicide bombing at Russian embassy in Kabul; 2 employees among 6 dead
- Russia’s state news agency, Afghan police, said there has been an explosion outside the Russian embassy in Afghanistan’s capital city
- Two embassy staff members were killed, they said, when Russian diplomat came out to people waiting outside to call out names of visa candidates
The number of fatalities after a bombing outside the Russian embassy in Kabul has risen to six, authorities said on Monday.
Two Russian embassy employees and four Afghan civilians were killed in the suicide bombing in the Afghan capital, authorities in Kabul and Moscow confirmed. Nearly a dozen others were wounded.
The RIA Novosti news agency said the explosion happened when a Russian diplomat came out to people waiting outside to call out the names of candidates for visas.
Kabul police spokesperson Khalid Zadran said that a suicide bomber wanted to blow himself up among a crowd near the Russian embassy in Kabul. “Security forces targeted the suicide bomber before he could reach his intended goal, which caused an explosion,” Zadran added.
He said an investigation was under way, and that the area was blocked off by police.
According to a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry, the explosion occurred “in the immediate vicinity of the entrance to the consular section of the Russian Embassy” in the Afghan capital.