23 Apr 2018

Kabul voter registration centre blast: 57 dead

7:34 am on 23 April 2018

The suicide bomb attack that hit a voter registration centre in Kabul, Afghanistan, has killed at least 57 people, officials say.

Afghan police officers inspect the scene of a suicide bomb attack that targeted a voter registration center in Kabul, Afghanistan on April 22, 2018.

Afghan police officers inspect the scene of the suicide bomb attack that struck an election centre on Sunday. Photo: AFP / Haroon Sabawoon / Anadolu Agency

Children were standing in line with their parents waiting to register when the bomb went off on Sunday morning.

The dead included 21 women and five children, killed when the blast hit the queue outside. A further 119 people were injured.

Voter registration began this month for legislative elections which are due to take place in October.

There were no immediate details of how the bomb was detonated by the attacker but the force of the blast also destroyed cars.

"I found myself covered in blood, with dead people - women and children - around me," Rasuli, 26, recalled when he spoke to AFP news agency from his hospital bed in the city.

Those injured in the suicide bomb attack that targeted a voter registration center in Kabul, Afghanistan on April 22, 2018, are treated at a local hospital.

Those injured in the suicide bomb attack are treated at a local hospital. Photo: AFP / Haroon Sabawoon / Anadolu Agency

"They all wanted to vote," he added.

Passport-sized photos and forms littered the blast site along with broken glass and pools of blood.

Another wounded man, who wept as he spoke from his hospital bed, told local channel Ariana TV, "I don't know where my daughters are. God damn the attackers".

The same channel showed angry crowds shouting "death to the government," and, before the IS claim of responsibility, "death to the Taliban".

There have already been at least four attacks on such centres since voter registration got under way a week ago. The legislative elections later this year will be followed by a presidential poll in 2019.

The Islamic State group (IS) said it had carried out the attack. It said a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt had targeted the centre, which is in the Dashte Barchi area of western Kabul.

Afghan police officers inspect the scene of a suicide bomb attack that targeted a voter registration center in Kabul, Afghanistan on April 22, 2018.

Afghan police officers inspect the scene of the attack. Photo: AFP / Haroon Sabawoon / Anadolu Agency

Dashte Barchi is heavily populated by members of Afghanistan's Shia Muslim minority, who have been targeted by IS for their religion in the past.

BBC research this year found the Afghan government had full control over just 30 percent of the country, with the rest under significant threat from the Taliban and - to a lesser extent - IS.

Afghanistan's interior minister this year told the BBC that both IS and the Taliban were targeting civilians to provoke people against the government and create chaos.

Sunday's attack was Kabul's deadliest since at least 100 people were killed in a district full of government buildings and embassies in January.

- BBC / Reuters

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