Taliban Bombs Kabul, Targets Afghan Defense Minister’s Home

The Taliban terror group killed eight people and injured 20 others in an attack on Kabul on Tuesday night that targeted the home of Afghanistan’s acting defense minister, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, Afghanistan’s interior ministry confirmed Wednesday.

The Taliban began its assault of Kabul, Afghanistan’s national capital, around 8:00 p.m. local time on August 3 with the detonation of a car bomb outside Mohammadi’s residential complex, the Afghan news site Tolo News reported on August 4.

Taliban fighters stormed the complex and clashed with the building’s security guards, killing at least one. Neither Mohammadi, nor his family was home at the time of the attack. Afghan government security forces arrived at Mohammadi’s residential complex shortly afterward and began repelling the Taliban fighters from the building, though the terrorists succeeded in killing eight people present at the compound at the time of the attack and injuring 20 more.

The Taliban’s bombardment of Kabul continued for several hours after the raid of Defense Minister Mohammadi’s home. The terrorists detonated additional bombs in central Kabul and unleashed gunfire across the city. The blitz was notable for successfully penetrating Kabul’s “Green Zone,” a heavily fortified area housing foreign embassies. Mohammadi’s residential compound neighbors the Green Zone and is likewise located within one of Kabul’s more secure districts, where most high-ranking Afghan government officials reside.

The Taliban have not carried out a major attack in Kabul of this caliber in nearly a year.

A spokesman for the Taliban issued a statement on August 4 claiming responsibility for the August 3 assault of Kabul.

“Last night in Kabul, a heavy martyrdom attack took place at the residence and meetings of the Minister of Defense of the Kabul administration. The attack was carried out by several brave Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate’s [Taliban] Martyrdom Battalion, armed with light and heavy weapons, as well as using a car bomb,” the statement, written by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, read.

“The attack is the beginning of the retaliatory operations against the circles and leaders of the Kabul administration who are ordering attacks and the bombing of different parts of the country,” the statement further read. Mujahid revealed that the Taliban targeted Defense Minister Mohammadi’s home Tuesday because “an important meeting” was allegedly underway there at the time.

Another explosion took place in Kabul on August 4 near a facility of Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security, wounding two civilians and a security official, local police told Reuters. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack at press time.