KABUL – The wrestling mats were spattered with blood, the sports bags andwater bottles still strewn across the floor Thursday, hours after a doublebombing ripped through the Maiwand sports club in Kabul, killing at least26 people.
A regular training session on Wednesday afternoon turned into a massacrewhen a suicide bomber shot dead a young, unarmed guard at the entrancebefore blowing himself up near the scores of wrestlers, some of whom wereas young as 10.
An hour later a car packed with explosives detonated outside the club,apparently targeting reporters and emergency workers who had gathered atthe scene.
Two journalists from Tolo News, Afghanistan’s largest private broadcaster,were among the dead. Four media workers were wounded.
“There were dead and wounded everywhere,” 14-year-old wrestler SayedRohullah told AFP from his bed at Isteqlal hospital, where dozens ofcasualties were taken after the twin blasts.
“Everyone was covered in glass and pieces of shrapnel, and shouting fortheir loved ones.
“After the explosion I couldn’t feel my legs.”
Most of the deaths were caused by severe burns and shrapnel, doctors said.
Ali Seena, 20, said the wrestlers had been in the middle of the trainingsession when they heard cracks of gunfire outside. He did not see thesuicide bomber enter the room, but he felt the “flying shrapnel” as itpierced his abdomen.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the latest attack, whichAfghan health and interior ministries said had killed at least 26 peopleand wounded 91.
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Maiwand club manager Pahlawan Shir said he feared the real death toll maybe much higher.
As many as 150 people were inside the hall in the heavily Shianeighbourhood at the time of the attack, he said.
“Some people have already taken their martyrs home. I am still searchingfor many missing students and coaches.”
Grieving relatives, friends and colleagues began the grim process ofburying their loved ones on Thursday morning in dusty, barren cemeteriesaround the city — rituals that have become all too familiar for war-wearyAfghans.
IS considers Shia Muslims apostates and has ramped up attacks against theminority group in recent years.
The last major attack on Shia in Kabul was on August 15 when a suicidebomber blew himself up in an education centre, killing dozens of students.
The group said it was behind that attack, which drew internationalcondemnation and came amid a wave of deadly violence across the country. -APP/AFP
