A rush-hour suicide bomb hidden in a sewage truck killed at least 80 people and wounded more than 300 others in Afghanistan’s capital early Wednesday, officials said.
The powerful explosion occurred at a time when Kabul’s roads were packed with commuters.
A huge plume of smoke rose over the city. Windows were shattered in shops, restaurants and other buildings up to a half-mile from the blast site.
Hamdullah Mohib, the Afghan ambassador to the U.S., was in Kabul at the time of the explosion. “It felt like the house was going to collapse from a massive earthquake,” he told NBC News.
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An injured man is carried to safety after Wednesday’s suicide attack in Kabul. Rahmat Gul / AP
In a sign of deep political tension within the Taliban, a collection of religious leaders in the group’s headquarters in Pakistan issued a letter of rebuke this month to the new insurgent leader over his bloody crackdown on dissenting commanders.
It was unclear whether the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times and confirmed in interviews with several Taliban commanders, would amount to more than a symbolic setback for the Taliban leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour. He has aggressively consolidated power since he was named leader in July. Commanders say he has kept a grip on the group’s biggest sources of income, including the trafficking of opium.
The Taliban commanders and members of the group’s ruling council at the headquarters in Quetta, Pakistan, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal negotiations, differed on how much weight was carried by the letter from the religious leaders. But they agreed that it reflected unease over infighting and deadly crackdowns ordered by Mullah Mansour, including the deployment of hundreds of fighters to kill a rival senior commander this month.
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An Afghan police officer searching for drugs in Nimroz Province this spring. The top Taliban commander, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, has a tight grip on trafficking of opium by the Taliban.Credit Bryan Denton for The New York Times
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