As condemnations for the Monday’s Taliban-claimed suicide car bombing are pouring in, the Afghan authorities revised the death toll to 43 on Tuesday.
A Taliban suicide bomber had rammed a previously captured armored military vehicle into a facility of the Afghan intelligence agency, National Directorate of Security (NDS), in the central Maidan Wardak province on Monday. Initially, the Ministry of Interior confirmed to Anadolu Agency that 12 security forces were killed and dozens more wounded in the assault.
AFGHAN PRESIDENT CONDEMNED THE ATTACK
However, the toll kept jumping up, with some local and international media asserting over 100 security forces were killed in the massive bombing and armed assault that turned the multi-floor complex into rubbles.
Today, the NDS issued a statement, saying 43 security forces were killed in the attack. In a statement, Afghan president Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack, saying such attacks cannot hurt the morale of the Afghan forces determined to eradicate terrorism. “The terrorist groups and their foreign backers cannot hurt the morale of our champion and brave security and defense forces with such terrorist attacks, we are determined to crush terrorist groups”, Ghani said.
On Sunday, the Taliban claimed responsibility for a similar car bombing aimed at the convoy of a provincial governor in Logar province that killed at least eight security forces.