Moscow strongly condemns the terrorist attack near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan and calls on the Afghan authorities to take active measures in order to eradicate terrorism in the country. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said this at a briefing on Thursday.
"We strongly condemn the January 11 terrorist attack in the vicinity of the Afghan Foreign Ministry building in Kabul. The ISIS (former name of the Islamic State organization banned in the Russian Federation - TASS) group claimed responsibility for it," she said. - "The attack, according to preliminary data, killed and wounded more than 40 people, including employees of the Afghan Foreign Ministry."
"We expect the Afghan government to conduct a thorough investigation into the attack and find and bring those responsible to justice. We call on the Afghan authorities to take active steps to eradicate the terrorist threat in the country," Zakharova stressed.
The diplomat expressed her condolences to the families and friends of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured. "This tragic event is, to all appearances, another in a series of earlier attacks on the Russian and Pakistani diplomatic missions in Kabul, as well as the capital's hotel with Chinese citizens living [there]," she said.
Earlier, Hasht-e-Subh reported that more than 20 people were killed when a bomb exploded Wednesday near the foreign ministry building of the radical Taliban (banned in the Russian Federation), which has seized power in Afghanistan, in the center of Kabul. Khalil Zadran, spokesman for the Kabul security department, told Afghan media that "at least five civilians were killed, and several were wounded" as a result of the incident.
The Russian diplomatic mission in Kabul reported to TASS that the employees of the Russian embassy in Kabul were safe after the explosion and that there was no information about any injured Russians.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS