Suicide bombing

KABUL — Four Afghan civilians were killed and dozens more were injured after a suicide attack in the capital of Kabul on Sunday morning, officials said.

The blast happened at around 11.50 a.m. local time (0720 GMT) in the 4th Microrayan, near the Supreme Court, on a busy road that is often used by coalition troops.

The attack appeared to have been carried out to attract media coverage just two days before the start of a major international conference about the future of the war-torn country.

“The insurgents have chosen to use violence to gain media attention, once again at the expense of innocent Afghan civilians,” said Colonel William Maxwell, the Combined Joint Operations Center Director for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

“Our condolences and sympathy goes out to the families and friends of those affected by this attack,” Maxwell added. He said 80 civilians have been killed in insurgent attacks in just the past two weeks alone.

Also on Sunday, ISAF said it intercepted orders from Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Omar at the beginning of June in which he ordered his fighters to kill Afghan civilians.

ISAF said the order is in direct contradiction to his instructions in 2009 in which he urged his followers to minimize civilian casualties in an attempt to compete with ISAF population-centric tactical directives.

Omar’s latest instructions, according to ISAF, include an order to fight coalition forces to the death without withdrawing or surrendering and attempt to capture coalition service members whenever possible.

But, ISAF said, it also includes an order in which Omar orders his subordinate commanders to capture and kill any Afghan who is supporting and/or working for coalition forces or the Afghan government. He also ordered to kill any Afghan women who are helping or providing information to coalition forces.

“This proves the Taliban are willing to ignore their own Code of Conduct when they sense they are losing influence and control,” said Brigadier General Josef Blotz, a spokesman for ISAF. “As today’s attack against several Afghan civilians were killed and injured by a suicide attack in a residential area in Kabul today demonstrates.”

According to the independent Afghan Rights Monitor, more than 1,000 Afghan civilians have been killed as a result of insurgent actions since January 2010. Nearly 200 of those occurred since the release of Omar’s order.

ISAF said no coalition service members were injured as a result of Sunday’s attack.