Suicide bomber strikes at top NATO, Afghan leaders

May 29, 2011 11:41 am | Updated November 17, 2021 01:09 am IST - KABUL

A Taliban suicide bomber wearing a police uniform blew himself up inside a heavily guarded compound as top Afghanistan and international officials were leaving a meeting, killing two senior Afghan police commanders and wounding the German general who commands coalition troops in northern Afghanistan.

Two German soldiers and two other Afghans were also killed in the blast on Saturday, the latest in an insurgent spring offensive. It came just weeks before a planned drawdown of U.S. troops begins this summer.

The bomber detonated his explosives-laden vest inside the governor’s complex in Takhar province, where high-ranking Afghan officials were meeting with members of the international coalition, said Faiz Mohammad Tawhedi, a spokesman for the governor.

“What we know is the guy who carried out the attack had a police uniform on,” Mr. Tawhedi said. “How he entered the meeting room and why he was not searched, we don’t know.”

Among the dead was Gen. Daud Daud, regional police commander in northern Afghanistan, according to the provincial health director, Dr. Hassain Basech.

Gen. Daud was a former deputy interior minister for counternarcotics and a former bodyguard of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the charismatic Tajik leader who commanded the Northern Alliance and died in an al-Qaeda suicide bombing two days before the September 11, 2001, attacks that provoked the U.S. invasion.

He was named chief of the northern zone police, which covers the nine northern provinces from its headquarters in Mazar-i-Sharif, about a year ago, at a time when security in northern Afghanistan was steadily deteriorating.

Also killed were provincial police chief Gen. Shah Jahan Noori, a secretary to the governor and one of Gen. Daud’s bodyguards, the health director said.

Gen. Markus Kneip, the NATO force’s commander for northern Afghanistan, was among the wounded, German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere said in Berlin.

Earlier this year, Gen. Kneip took over NATO’s northern regional command, which covers nine provinces on Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. He also serves as the senior national commander of the 4,900 German troops deployed in the north, a region that had been relatively calm but has seen a rise in violence over the past two years.

Two German troops were killed and two others were wounded in the blast, Mr. de Maiziere said. Fifty-one German troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the start of the war.

“The attackers and their superiors are criminal murderers,” Mr. de Maiziere said. “They should not and will not have the last word. We will not leave the path of partnership. However, it is a steep and bitter price.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also condemned the attack, saying in a statement that she was “shocked and sad about the dead and wounded German soldiers as well the many Afghan victims.” The Chancellor demanded a thorough investigation to find and punish the perpetrators.

Abdul Jabar Taqwa, the Takhar province governor who was at the meeting, suffered burns to his head, hands and back. Nine other Afghans were wounded, including a cameraman working in the governor’s office and eight Afghan troops.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, the latest in an uptick of violence since the Islamic extremist movement launched its spring offensive on May 1. The effectiveness of the Taliban’s campaign could affect the size of President Barack Obama’s planned drawdown of U.S. troops, beginning in July.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said it was part of the insurgency’s assassination campaign against high-ranking government officials and was meant to undercut a military offensive he said the Afghan National Army was planning to launch in the north.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, calling it a “barbaric act of terror”.

The suicide attacker struck at 4.45 p.m. as top officials walked out of their meeting, a senior Afghan police officer told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to talk to journalists. There was a flash of fire and people started running in all directions, he said. After that, the room went dark and white smoke billowed from the compound.

AP Television News video showed the aftermath of the powerful blast - windows and doors were blown out and black scorch marks marred much of the building. Blood was spattered on paving stones in the parking lot and the sound of soldiers stepping through shattered glass could be heard.

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