Explosion in a restaurant in Afghan capital kills at least 7 and injures a dozen more

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An explosion at a restaurant in downtown Kabul on Monday killed at least seven people and wounded about a dozen more, according to police and an Italian charity running a surgical unit in the city.

Afghan authorities did not officially say what caused the blast, noting it was under investigation. But the president of neighboring Pakistan issued a statement attributing the explosion to a bomb.

The blast occurred in a Chinese restaurant in the Shahr-e-Naw district of the Afghan capital, according to Kabul police command spokesman Khalid Zadran. He said the restaurant was jointly owned by an Afghan man, a Chinese national and his wife.

The restaurant was popular with Chinese Muslims, Zadran said, adding that one Chinese national and six Afghans were killed and several others were wounded. The blast occurred near the restaurant’s kitchen, the police spokesman said, and the cause was under investigation.

The Italian charity EMERGENCY said its surgical center in the Afghan capital, which is located near the site of the explosion, had received 20 people from the blast, including seven who were already dead. It noted the number of casualties was still provisional.

Those injured included four women and a child, the organization’s country director in Afghanistan, Dejan Panic, said.

“The wounded, some of whom are being assessed for surgery, have suffered lacerations and bruises,” he added.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said two Chinese people were seriously injured and a security guard killed in the blast.

Footage aired by local television station Tolo News and filmed through a car windshield showed people running and walking in the street with smoke and dust billowing behind them.

Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari “strongly condemned the bomb blast at a Chinese restaurant in Kabul,” his office said in a statement.

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been particularly strained in recent months, with tension spilling into violence. In October, the two came close to all-out conflict and cross-border clashes left dozens dead. The fighting ended after Qatar brokered a ceasefire.

Zardari accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of failing to honor the ceasefire agreements, “particularly the obligation to prevent the use of Afghan soil for the export of terrorism,” adding that “no terrorist groups should be allowed safe havens in Afghanistan.”

Afghan officials have repeatedly said they do not allow their territory to be used as a base by terrorist groups.

Pakistan’s president said that “terrorists operating out of Afghan soil” had also affected other neighboring countries, and singled out Tajikistan. His statement came after Tajik authorities said Monday that their border guards had killed four gunmen who crossed into the country from Afghanistan overnight. Afghan authorities said the four were drug smugglers.

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Ahmed contributed from Islamabad, Pakistan