Death toll rises after Kabul bomb, extensive damage to German embassy - DW

A massive truck bomb has hit Kabul's highly secure diplomatic area, killing at least 90 people and wounding hundreds. The German embassy was heavily damaged, and Berlin has now postponed deportations to Afghanistan.

According to Afghan officials, at least 90 people were killed and as many as 350 wounded when a massive truck bomb ripped through the Afghan capital Wednesday. However, they warn that the death toll is likely to rise, given the severity of many of the injuries.

Witnesses reported an enormous plume of smoke rising up from Kabul's diplomatic quarter, home to the city's foreign embassies and the presidential palace. 

An Afghan security guard was killed outside the German embassy while an unspecified number of embassy staff were wounded. The embassy building has also been badly damaged.

The German embassy in Kabul praised the Afghan security forces for stopping the bomber's truck from entering the inner part of the diplomatic enclave. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the many victims of this horrific attack and their families. This includes the heroic Afghan security guard who lost his life after stopping the vehicle at the boom gate, thus preventing even more bloodshed," the Germany embassy said in a statement.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the suicide truck bombing, saying that "terrorism has no borders."

Terrorism "targets all of us - whether in Manchester or Berlin, Paris, Istanbul, St. Petersburg or today in Kabul," Merkel said in the southern German city of Nuremberg just hours after the explosion in Kabul.

Germany's foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, wrote on Twitter that he had called an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in Kabul and the state of the German embassy. "Such attacks do not change our resolve in continuing to support the Afghan government in the stabilization of the country," he said.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani urged the international community to put pressure on those countries that are backing Islamist militants. "The terrorist groups have used the name of Islam to once again ruthlessly kill people. They are committing war crimes and have no idea about what Islamic teachins are," Ghani said in a statement. - Read More

Death toll rises after Kabul bomb, extensive damage to German

Huge explosion in Kabul, extensive damage to German embassy