A noisy explosion and firearms were heard in Kabul, near a guest house prized by Chinese business visitors.
MO12345LEMOND With AFP
The attack perpetrated Monday December 12 against a Kabul hotel frequented by Chinese businessmen left three people dead and eighteen injured, according to the NGO Emergency which manages a hospital in the Afghan capital where were transported victims.
In a tweet, the NGO says it has received “twenty -one injured” among them “three had already died” when they arrived at the hospital. However, she did not specify if they were the attackers. According to the Taliban spokesperson, “three attackers” who attacked the hotel located in a highly frequented commercial area were killed.
🔴 #kabul #afghanistan esplosione e sparatoria vicino has a hotel, circa 1km dal ospedale. Finora Abbiamo Ri… https://t.co/fy83apzqwe
Earlier in the afternoon, a noisy explosion and firearms were heard. “It was a very strong explosion and then there were a lot of shots,” a witness told the France-Presse agency (AFP). Local media has also reported similar information.
Security managers were not immediately available to comment on the explosion that occurred in the district in Shahr-E Naw, one of the main commercial areas of the capital.
This district houses the Longan hotel in Kabul, a very popular several floor complex of Chinese businessmen who are more and more numerous to go to Afghanistan since the return of the Taliban to power.
Chinese diplomatic presence
Beijing has not officially recognized the Taliban government, but China, which shares 76 kilometers from border with Afghanistan, is one of the few countries to have maintained a diplomatic presence there.
Beijing has been afraid of Afghanistan for a long time to become a fall point for separatists of the persecuted ouïgoure minority, coming from the very sensitive Chinese border region of the Xinjiang.
The Taliban promised that Afghanistan would not be used as a basis for Uighur activists. In exchange, China offered them economic support and investments for the reconstruction of the country.
The maintenance of stability in Afghanistan, after twenty years of war with the Americans and NATO forces, is the main concern of Beijing, which seeks to secure its borders and its strategic investments in Pakistan, their common neighbor .
The Taliban also count on China to transform one of the largest copper deposits in the world in the mining factory. An exploitation that would be precious to straighten the country, short of money and struck by international economic sanctions.
Although it holds the rights to major projects in Afghanistan, in particular the copper mine of my aynak, in the province of LOGAR (EST), China has made any of these projects advance.
The Taliban claims to have improved security in the country since their return to power in August 2021, but many bomb attacks have been perpetrated in recent months, generally claimed by the local section of the Islamic State jihadist group in Khorassan ( Ei-k).
This is not the first time that foreigners have been targeted. On December 2, a security guard was injured by shots fired on the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul. The Islamic State group had claimed the attack, confirming that it has targeted the head of mission.
Two employees of the Russian Embassy in Kabul and four Afghans were also killed on September 5 near the building, in a suicide attack claimed there too by EI-K. It was then the first attack on a diplomatic representation since the return of the Taliban.