KABUL, Afghanistan: Suicide car bomb explodes 300 yards outside US Embassy

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) Afghan police: Suicide car bomb explodes 300 y...

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ASAPNewsAlert,0105

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) Afghan police: Suicide car bomb explodes 300 yards outside US Embassy gate in Kabul.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APNP 11-26-08 2214CST

(visit the link for the full news article)





[edit on 11/26/2008 by schrodingers dog]

This has just come in so there are no details on it yet.

Will update as they come.

It cannot be a coincidence that this is happening on the same day as the India attacks.

Surely this means that Al Qaeda is somehow coordinating these attacks.

CNN just reported this as well by the way.





www.kxmb.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 11/26/2008 by schrodingers dog]

Things are getting worse!

EDIT:

We have to understand why this is occurring and not simply blame any possible terrorists responsible.




[edit on 26-11-2008 by they see ALL]

First details coming in:

Afghan police say a suicide car bomb has exploded about 200 yards (meters) outside the main entrance to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul in an attack against an American convoy.

Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayub Salangi says one person was killed and six wounded in the attack.

Police officer Abdul Manan says the attack appears to have been a suicide car bomb.

The U.S. Embassy was hosting a Thanksgiving Day footrace, and Americans and other Westerners were entering the embassy compound at the time of the explosion.

townhall

KABUL: A suicide bomb blew up near the US embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul Thursday, killing at least four people and wounding several more, police said.

"The information we have so far is that four people have been killed and three wounded. It was a suicide attack," a city police chief, General Alishah Paktiawal, told reporters at the scene.

thenews

SD..You always post good threads and I respect your logic..This could be a connection but a group called the Deccan Mujahideen are claiming responsibility for this act but the limited knowledge on these people says that they live in India and are an internal group(for now) but how knows who may be pulling the puppet strings. I know that from the all the recent missle strikes in A-Stan and Pakistan it may be cause for the attack near the US Embassy.. I worry and it seems like the crap is hitting the fan alot more thick lately..Just my opinion though!!

Originally posted by schrodingers dog
It cannot be a coincidence that this is happening on the same day as the India attacks.

Surely this means that Al Qaeda is somehow coordinating these attacks.

This seems similar to the Kabul bombing outside the US embassy two years ago. It seems like the crowds + holiday traffic were particular target here.

What would the advantage be to coordinating with the India attacks?

reply to post by cmd18B


To tell you the truth I don't know what to make of this latest attack in Kabul. The news was breaking so I was just noting my first thoughts. You are right, until we find out who is truly behind the India attacks it is impossible to know if the Kabul attack was coordinated. For all we know the Kabul attack was planned last minute to "piggyback" if you will on the India attacks.

It is just too early to make such determinations.
Thanks for the compliment by the way.

Good question Ian...I wonder the same about a possible coordination with the India attacks..Im hoping to see some intelligent answers here that we can throw around.

reply to post by Ian McLean



Well, I suppose who ever is doing these might feel the advantage is that the US starts to feel attacked and this time it's not by a "lone gunman" or 19 people with sporks.

It would make sense from a media point of view to do something on a day when everyone is together, in front of the TV, already nervous about a black Friday, the economic future and the amount of green toner we'll need to print the trillions we're offering.

I smell Rove.

reply to post by schrodingers dog

No problem SD!!..I like your threads...I have been to A-Stan three times and I may be going back as a civilian employee this time and I have never heard of the Deccan Mujahideen so this just makes the already terrible job of fighting terrorism bit more difficult, Makes me second guess accepting the job if get it..

My first thought about the Kabul bombing would be "advertising". The people behind it see all the coverage on the news so why not get your act out there too? Before India, a car bombing like that would just be a headline and no one outside the family/friends of those affected would care that much. Plus, if there are more bombings in Afgahnistan then it makes Obama's "surge" plan in Afghanistan look more urgent. Not trying to be political or anyting like that just calling it like I see it.

As far as what's happening in India goes, it seems like the tactics that are being used are a diversion for something else. I don't understand why these terrorists who planned this out so carefully would take hostages knowing they are going to be killed one way or another. That very act contradicts the very operation. I understand them wanting to hit a financial target, but they way their going about it makes no sense. If this is all they do, then all they've done in the grand scheme of things is shine light on thier "group" and invited a huge crackdown by the Indian Gov't. Sure, they cause terror, mayhem and death but it seems like to me there's more going on here than what meets the eye.

I guess we'll have to wait and see how it plays out.

Hmm, conflicting reports from AP and Reuters.

AP: cbs2chicago.com...

The U.S. Embassy was hosting a Thanksgiving Day footrace, and Americans and other Westerners were entering the embassy compound at the time of the explosion.

Reuters: in.reuters.com...

U.S. embassy staff were off work for the Thanksgiving public holiday and were unlikely to be out on the roads at the time, an embassy spokesman said.

Spokesmen for international troops confirmed the blast, but were unable to provide any details.

Spokesmen covering a security leak? I'm tending to believe AP, here.

Originally posted by Kords21
My first thought about the Kabul bombing would be "advertising". The people behind it see all the coverage on the news so why not get your act out there too? Before India, a car bombing like that would just be a headline and no one outside the family/friends of those affected would care that much.

I actually have to disagree with that. On a slow or regular news day, an attack outside the US embassy in Kabul would be significant news.

As it stands, though we are talking about it here, the Kabul attack is currently being ignored by the MSM and generally lost in the shuffle of the non-stop coverage from India.

I just based that assumption off how bombings in Iraq are covered these days. The media mentioned it but then went back to India which I can understand. Just seems like to me some opportunists trying to piggyback on the coverage of the India attack.

At least there's this:

KABUL, Nov 27 (Reuters) - All staff at the U.S. embassy in the Afghan capital, Kabul, are safe and accounted for after a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle close to the embassy compound on Thursday, an embassy spokesman said.

alertnet

reply to post by Kords21


Could be that it's copy cats. Good point.

Could be really foreign rogue groups.

Or it could be organized, weaponized, paid militia - set up to create a diversion or at least a show. If so, it must have been decided at some point that US soil was too gruesome for Thanksgiving, but it would be ignored if it wasn't US targets. And as if our soldiers over there don't have enough woes - what more heart tugging site would there be than they having to deal with this as well as being away from home for the holidays.

It's probably connected to what happened to the dollar today. And it may be media test for Obama reaction to this.

I tell you these architects make me sick.

lets also take into consideration that this is also distracting us from any planned attacks in usa too. So sad that so many innocent people are being killed

reply to post by MSABBY8562



I agree. I always wince when the press says US and British tourists were the targets! As if all the blood on the floor of that hotel in the pictures would be any less shocking if it were from citizens of India.

Some more details coming in.

KABUL, Afghanistan: A suicide car bomber targeting an American convoy exploded about 200 yards (meters) outside the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least four people just as American civilians were entering the compound for a Thanksgiving Day race.

At least 18 more were wounded in the 8:30 a.m. attack, the public health ministry said.

Police officer Abdul Manan said the explosion was set off by a suicide bomber in a Toyota Corolla.

The U.S. Embassy was hosting a Thanksgiving Day fun run at 9 a.m., so Americans and other Westerners were entering the embassy compound when the bomb went off, sending some participants sprinting for the embassy gates.

"I was about 30 or 40 yards inside the gate. There was a large explosion. I felt the shock wave, though it wasn't all that strong," said Danny Cutherell, a 26-year-old aid worker from Virginia. "We were about 200 yards from the blast when it went off, but we were behind the embassy wall and that protected us."

Cutherell said about 20 participants in the run had been locked inside a room with double-locking doors at the embassy's security checkpoint and that guards would neither let them in or out. "We're here for a while," he said.

"It was a bit shocking but it's also not that shocking because it is Thanksgiving and we had heard there was going to be tightened security today," Cutherell said. "It's just scary to be that close to it."

herald tribune

Edit: I also posted a picture from the scene in the OP



[edit on 11/26/2008 by schrodingers dog]