Scores Killed, Wounded in Kabul Ambulance Blast,Taliban Claims Responsibility

People carry an injured man to a hospital after a blast in Kabul, Afghanistan January 27, 2018.REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail
People carry an injured man to a hospital after a blast in Kabul, Afghanistan January 27, 2018.REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail
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Scores Killed, Wounded in Kabul Ambulance Blast,Taliban Claims Responsibility

People carry an injured man to a hospital after a blast in Kabul, Afghanistan January 27, 2018.REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail
People carry an injured man to a hospital after a blast in Kabul, Afghanistan January 27, 2018.REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail

A bomb hidden in an ambulance killed at least 40 people and wounded about 140 at an Afghan police checkpoint in an area of Kabul near foreign embassies and government buildings, officials said.

"The suicide bomber used an ambulance to pass through the checkpoints. He passed through the first checkpoint saying he was taking a patient to Jamuriate hospital and at the second checkpoint he was recognized and blew his explosive-laden car," AFP quoted interior ministry deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi as saying.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast.

“It is a massacre,” said Dejan Panic, coordinator in Afghanistan for the Italian aid group Emergency, which runs a nearby trauma hospital. In a message on Twitter, the group said more than 50 wounded had been brought in to that hospital alone.

Health ministry spokesman Wahid Majroh said at least 40 people were killed and 140 wounded in the blast, which blew up in a crowded street in a busy part of the city at lunchtime.

Saturday is a working day in Afghanistan.

Buildings hundreds of meters away were shaken by the force of the explosion, which left torn bodies strewn on the street nearby amid rubble and debris.

In chaotic scenes at the Jamuriate hospital, which is the nearest medical facility to the blast, overwhelmed doctors and nurses rushed to treat dozens of wounded lying in the corridors.

Outside civilians walked through debris-covered streets carrying wounded people on their backs as paramedics loaded several bodies at a time into ambulances to take them to medical facilities around the city. 

The explosion comes exactly a week after Taliban militants stormed a luxury hotel in Kabul, killing at least 22 people, the majority foreigners.

A security alert issued to foreigners on Saturday morning warned that the Islamic State group, which has terrorized the city in recent months, was planning "to conduct aggressive attacks" on supermarkets, shops and hotels frequented by foreigners. 

The latest attack will add pressure on President Ashraf Ghani and his US allies, who have expressed growing confidence that a new more aggressive military strategy has succeeded in driving Taliban insurgents back from major provincial centers.

The United States has stepped up its assistance to Afghan security forces and increased its air strikes against the Taliban and other militant groups, aiming to break a stalemate and force the insurgents to the negotiating table.

However, the Taliban have dismissed suggestions that they have been weakened by the new strategy and the latest attacks have demonstrated that their capacity to mount deadly, high- profile attacks remains undiminished.



Zelenskiy Thanks Trump for Readiness to Support Ukraine

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with US Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 14, 2025. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with US Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 14, 2025. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters)
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Zelenskiy Thanks Trump for Readiness to Support Ukraine

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with US Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 14, 2025. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with US Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 14, 2025. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday he had spoken to US President Donald Trump after his announcement of new weapons for Ukraine and thanked him for his support. 

"It was a very good conversation. I thanked him for his readiness to support Ukraine and to continue working together to stop the killings and establish a lasting and just peace," Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app. 

Zelenskiy said he and Trump had agreed to speak more frequently and "continue coordinating our steps". 

He also said he had a very good conversation with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who met with Trump at the White House on Monday. 

Trump told reporters he was disappointed in Russian President Vladimir Putin and that billions of dollars of US weapons would go to Ukraine. 

He also threatened sanctions on buyers of Russian exports unless Russia agreed to a peace deal, expressing frustration at repeated Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities. But the threat of sanctions came with a 50-day grace period. 

The weapons would include Patriot air defense missiles, which Ukraine has urgently sought. 

Zelenskiy had earlier met US special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where they discussed boosting Ukraine's air defenses and Kyiv buying weapons with European help. 

Trump had said on Sunday that he would send Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine. 

"We discussed the path to peace and what we can practically do together to bring it closer. This includes strengthening Ukraine's air defense, joint production, and procurement of defense weapons in collaboration with Europe," Zelenskiy wrote on X. 

"And of course, sanctions against Russia and those who help it." 

Trump, who began his second term with a more conciliatory approach to Russia, has in recent weeks signaled disenchantment with Putin as Moscow has stepped up air strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. 

An air-raid alert was declared in Kyiv shortly after the meeting between Kellogg and Zelenskiy on Monday.