UPDATED: Youth blows self up attacking Kabul play condemning suicide bombers

Reuters , Thursday 11 Dec 2014

A teenaged bomber on Thursday targeted a Kabul auditorium packed with people watching a drama condemning suicide attacks and being staged at a French cultural centre, killing at least one person and wounding 16, officials and a witness said.

The suicide blast was the second to strike the Afghan capital in a day, after six Afghan soldiers perished when their bus was hit on the outskirts of the city as they rode into work.

The violence, part of a nationwide campaign by Islamist Taliban insurgents to strike at military and civilian targets, came less than three weeks before the year-end deadline for most foreign combat soldiers to withdraw from the country.

Deputy Interior Minister General Ayoub Salangi said the suspected theatre bomber appeared to have been about 17 years old and detonated his explosives inside the venue, killing one and wounding 16 attending the early evening performance.

"I heard a deafening explosion ... There were Afghans, foreigners, young girls and young boys watching the show," Sher Ahmad, an Afghan rights activist who was at the performance, told Reuters.

He said the blast came during a performance of a new play called "Heartbeat: Silence After the Explosion", a condemnation of suicide attacks.

"Pieces of flesh were plastered on the wall. There were children and women crying for help. Some were running out, some were just screaming."

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the bomber targeted the event because it was staged "to insult Islamic values and spread propaganda about our jihad operations, especially on suicide attacks".

Amid the confusion immediately following the blast, one person could be heard saying "It's all part of the show" in a video posted on YouTube purporting to be of the attack.

Heavy Security

Early police reports said the bomber attacked the French-run Lycée Esteqlal, one of Kabul's oldest and most highly respected high schools, but Ahmad said the performance was at the French Cultural Centre located in the same compound.

The person confirmed killed by police appeared to be a foreign man, Salangi said, but he could not immediately confirm his identity or nationality.

The French government said in a statement that "several" people were killed in the attack and "many" more injured, but none of the fatalities were French nationals.

The venue was heavily guarded during the event in the auditorium, said Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi, who added that the bomber may have hidden explosives in his underwear to pass through security.

He said the bomber detonated the blast at the top of the auditorium's stairs, which may have prevented higher casualties. The body of the bomber was shredded, but police were able to identify him as a teenager because his head was found intact.

Taliban militants have stepped up a campaign of violence this year to take advantage of uncertainty and weakness besetting Afghanistan's security forces as they prepare to take over the war on the insurgency, now in its 13th year.

Earlier on Thursday, a suicide bomber targeted a bus carrying Afghan army personnel, the Defence Ministry said, ending a near two-week lull in attacks in the capital. As well as the six soldiers killed, 11 were wounded.

Dawlat Waziri, deputy spokesman for the Afghan Defence Ministry, said a bomber on foot targeted the bus in the Tarakhil area of eastern Kabul when the army personnel were on their way to work.

Five Afghan school children were also reported killed in a foreign forces air strike in northern Parwan province, Afghan officials said.

The International Security Assistance Force confirmed an air strike in the area, but said five insurgents were killed.

Civilian casualties caused by air strikes have been one of the most contentious issues of the war, although there are often conflicting claims.

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