KABUL — A car bomb exploded outside the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan's capital Thursday, killing at least 17 people and destroying offices and cars along a heavily fortified street that is home to the country's Interior Ministry, officials said.
The 8:30 a.m. blast — for which the Taliban quickly asserted responsibility — occurred when a sport-utility vehicle drove up next to a concrete barrier protecting the embassy. The explosion killed at least two Afghan police officers and 15 civilians and wounded more than 60 others, according to the Interior Ministry. It damaged several buildings and concrete walls along the quiet street of embassies, shops and government buildings.
The bombing marked the second time in two years that the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan has been attacked. In July 2008, a suicide bomber killed 58 people there, including the Indian defense attache. U.S. officials have accused the Taliban-linked militant network of Jalaluddin Haqqani, which is based in the tribal areas of western Pakistan, of collaborating with Pakistani intelligence officials to carry out that bombing.
The Haqqani network, which some Pakistani officials consider a strategic asset in their country's rivalry with India, regularly mounts attacks on U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan. If evidence emerges that Pakistani fighters or government officials worked with the Taliban to stage the latest attack, it could further weaken a volatile relationship between longtime rivals India and Pakistan. The siege in the Indian port city of Mumbai in November has been blamed on Pakistani militants and was a major setback for that relationship.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry condemned the bombing and terrorism of all kinds, and the U.S. Embassy said in a statement, "There is no justification for this kind of senseless violence."
In India, debate raged throughout the day on whether Afghanistan has become the new frontier in India's own war on terrorism. The foreign secretary, Nirupama Rao, told reporters in New Delhi that the Kabul embassy had been deliberately targeted. "The suicide bomber came up to the outside perimeter wall of the embassy in a car loaded with explosives," she said.
Rao said three guards who were posted near the fortified wall around the embassy were slightly injured from shrapnel but added, "All the members who were inside the embassy are safe." Jayant Prasad, India's ambassador to Afghanistan, said by telephone, "We are really heartbroken." But he avoided drawing any immediate conclusions about whether Pakistani militants or intelligence agents had helped orchestrate the blast.
The explosion occurred as election officials are examining potentially fraudulent ballots from last month's disputed presidential election — a process that will determine whether President Hamid Karzai wins or whether the contest proceeds to a second round runoff. The main challenger, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, seized on the bombing to point out the failings of Karzai's leadership.
"If the government cannot provide security 50 meters away from its own offices, how can we expect it to provide security in the provinces?" Abdullah said in a speech in Kabul.
