{"id":303,"date":"2016-11-13T16:14:50","date_gmt":"2016-11-13T16:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/?p=303"},"modified":"2016-11-13T16:14:50","modified_gmt":"2016-11-13T16:14:50","slug":"afghanistan-fatal-attack-on-german-consulate-in-mazar-e-sharif","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/2016\/11\/13\/afghanistan-fatal-attack-on-german-consulate-in-mazar-e-sharif\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan: Fatal attack on German consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif"},"content":{"rendered":"

A suicide bomber has rammed a truck into a German consulate in Afghanistan, killing at least six civilians and wounding 120, officials said.<\/p>\n

Gunman attacked the building after the blast, in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, battling with German and Afghan forces.<\/p>\n

The Taliban said it carried out the attack in retaliation for air strikes last week in Kunduz province.<\/p>\n

Local police said at least one suspect had been arrested in connection with the bombing.<\/p>\n

‘Massive damage’<\/h2>\n

A Nato spokesman said there was “massive damage” to the consulate after the truck smashed into a perimeter wall.<\/p>\n

The blast left a large crater in the ground and overturned nearby cars. Pictures showed rows of windows blown out and buildings mangled by the force.<\/p>\n

Officials are also investigating whether a second car bomb was involved, the Nato spokesman added.<\/p>\n

\"CroatianImage copyright<\/span>AFP<\/span><\/span>
Image caption<\/span>A large crater was left by the blast<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that the fighters had been sent “with a mission to destroy the German consulate general and kill whoever they found there,” Reuters reported.<\/p>\n

All German consulate staff were “safe and uninjured,” the German foreign ministry said, adding that troops were on site preparing to evacuate staff.<\/p>\n

\"AImage copyright<\/span>REUTERS<\/span><\/span>
Image caption<\/span>Doctors said they expect the number of casualties to increase<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ajmal Jan, a local shopkeeper, said the force of the blast had blown his windows out.<\/p>\n

“The explosion was very strong, all the glass in my shop broke and I was injured,” he told Reuters news agency. “My shop was covered by dust and smoke, it was a frightening situation.”<\/p>\n

\"german<\/span>
Image caption<\/span>The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Germany leads the Nato diplomatic mission in northern Afghanistan and has nearly 1,000 troops stationed in the country.<\/p>\n

The mission operates from a walled compound in the centre of Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province.<\/p>\n

President Ashraf Ghani has condemned the attack.<\/p>\n

\"Map\"<\/span><\/figure>\n

Nato said it was investigating the air strikes in Kunduz, cited by the Taliban. Afghan troops reportedly called in air support after being surrounded by Taliban militants.<\/p>\n

Some 30 civilians, including women and children, were killed in the incident, local officials said.<\/p>\n

\"AfghanImage copyright<\/span>AFP<\/span><\/span>
Image caption<\/span>The site of the blast at the diplomatic mission<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(This article was retrieved from BBC News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A suicide bomber has rammed a truck into a German consulate in Afghanistan, killing at least six civilians and wounding 120, officials said. Gunman attacked the building after the blast, in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, battling with German and Afghan forces. The Taliban said it carried out the attack in retaliation for air strikes last week in Kunduz province.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions\/304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}