'Many dead bodies and blood everywhere': At least 103 killed in Afghan car bombing

Doug Stanglin | USA TODAY

At least 103 people were killed and 235 wounded in Kabul Saturday after a suicide bomber driving an ambulance detonated an explosive device at a security checkpoint near a hospital.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack in the Afghan capital that sent dark smoke billowing. It follows last week's attack by Taliban militants that killed 22 people in an armed assault on an international hotel in central Kabul.

The driver of the explosive-laden vehicle had already gotten through one checkpoint by telling police he was taking a patient to a nearby hospital, said Nasrat Rahimi, deputy spokesperson for the Interior Ministry. He then detonated his explosives at a second checkpoint.

The use of an ambulance in today’s attack in #Kabul is harrowing. This could amount to perfidy under IHL. Unacceptable and unjustifiable. — ICRC Afghanistan (@ICRC_af) January 27, 2018

The Jamhuriat hospital, government offices, businesses, two consulates and a school are close to the site of the blast.

“The majority of the dead in the attack are civilians, but of course we have military casualties as well,” Rahimi said. He said four suspects had been arrested and were being questioned.

The casualty figure was particularly high because the area is normally crowded on Saturday.

"There were many dead bodies and blood everywhere," Ahmed Naweed, a witness, told Al Jazeera. "People were crying and screaming and running away."

The International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan, in a post on Twitter, condemned the use of an ambulance in the attacks, calling it "harrowing, unacceptable and unjustifiable."

In August, President Trump outlined a revised vision for the U.S. war in Afghanistan, announcing a change to the strategy of “nation-building” pursued by previous administrations in favor of a policy focused primarily on the terrorist threat in the region.

“I share the American people’s frustration,” he said. “I also share their frustration over a foreign policy that has spent too much time, energy, money — and, most importantly, lives — trying to rebuild countries in our own image instead of pursuing our security interests above all other considerations.”

Trump’s U.N. envoy, Nikki Haley, said last summer that the president's policy was working and that peace talks between the government and the Taliban were closer than ever.