Kabul restaurant hit by ‘bomber’

 

                            Attack ... Flames and smoke rise at the site of a suicide car bomb attack at

                       a French restaurant - Le Jardin in Kabul.

A TALIBAN suicide car bomber has hit a French restaurant popular with foreigners in Kabul, in a New Year’s day attack that marks the latest in a series of brazen insurgent assaults.

There was no immediate confirmation of casualties from the attack on Le Jardin, an Afghan-owned eatery, which caused a piercingly loud explosion and left a building engulfed in flames.

“The explosion happened in Qala-e-Fathullah neighbourhood of Kabul city. Apparently a restaurant has been attacked,” interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.

“We can confirm a suicide car bomb attack on Le Jardin,” Fraidoon Obaidi, the head of Kabul’s Criminal Investigation Department, said.

“We are busy extinguishing the fire at the scene,” he added.

The information was corroborated by a Western official in Kabul, who did not have details of casualties.

Security forces cordoned off the area and firefighters and ambulances with wailing sirens were seen rushing to the restaurant.

The attack comes a day after Afghanistan announced four-way talks in Pakistan on January 11, aimed at jump-starting peace negotiations with the resurgent Taliban.

Pakistan - the Taliban’s historic backers - hosted a milestone first round of talks in July but the negotiations stalled when the insurgents belatedly confirmed the death of longtime leader Mullah Omar.

Afghanistan sees the support of Pakistan as vital to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.

But despite the growing bonhomie with Islamabad, analysts caution that any substantive talks are still a long way off.

Afghan forces are currently battling to push back Taliban insurgents who seized large swathes of the key opium-rich district of Sangin in the southern province of Helmand.

Observers say the intensifying insurgency highlights a push by the Taliban to make more military gains to try to achieve greater concessions during talks.

The Taliban attacked a restaurant popular with expats, the Taverna du Liban, in January 2014, killing 21 people, including 13 foreigners.

Desperate customers tried to hide under tables as one attacker detonated his suicide vest at the fortified entrance to the eatery and two other militants stormed inside and opened fire.