A suicide attack claimed by the
\nTaliban has left some 20 people dead and more than 100 wounded on Monday night
\nin the centre of the Afghan capital Kabul. The attack came shortly after a
\nmeeting between president Ashraf Ghani and the US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to
\ndiscuss a draft peace agreement with the Afghan insurgents, an accord that some
\nof the Taliban do not favour, however. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The victims of the attack include
\nRomanian nationals, members of Bucharest’s diplomatic mission in Kabul. In an
\ninterview to Radio Romania a few hours after the incident, the Romanian foreign
\nminister Ramona Manescu spoke about the circumstances of the attack:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, our embassy came
\nunder attack, it was a car bombing, followed by an armed attack that went on
\nfor quite a long time on the Romanian mission in Kabul. The attack continued
\nand fire was set to several adjacent buildings. Tragically, we lost a member of
\nthe security staff, a man who sacrificed his life to save that of others, a
\nyoung man we can only be indebted to and who we must pay the tribute he
\ndeserves.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Romania is one of the top five
\ncontributor countries to the NATO mission in Afghanistan, deploying over 760
\nmilitary to this theatre of operations. Romanian troops have taken part in
\nmissions in this country ever since January 2002. Dozens of them have been
\nkilled or wounded since then in attacks, but it is for the first time that the
\nembassy headquarters have been targeted. Romania’s foreign minister Ramona
\nManescu:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
It is not the first time that such
\nan attack has taken place. Of course we have perhaps been spared this so far,
\nbut have seen other cases when civilian sites have been targeted. So it is all
\nthe more important to stay there and stand firmly with our partners in the
\nfight against terrorism and especially this type of terrorism.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
President Klaus Iohannis and prime
\nminister Viorica Dancila have both condemned the attack most firmly and have
\nreiterated Romania’s support for the fight against terrorism in all its forms.
\nAlmost 200 people have been killed and some 900 wounded in attacks taking place
\nin Kabul since the beginning of the year. In a joint statement released on
\nTuesday, a number of former US ambassadors to Afghanistan have warned of the
\nrisks involved in a hasty pullout of US troops before real peace is achieved. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A member of Romanias diplomatic mission in Kabul has been killed and another seriously wounded in a terrorist attack on the compound where the embassy is located.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":53028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[30447,33525,32134],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-82810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-attack","tag-embassy","tag-kabul"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n