AP, Afgnaistan :
At least 400 fuel tankers have been set ablaze in a parking lot near Kabul. As the fire burned, Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the destruction.
“The incident occurred in a parking area in Chawk-e-Arghandi (Pashman district, Kabul) at 10:30 pm on Friday night. As a result 400 fuel tankers were torched,” said Hashmat Stanekzai, a spokesman for the Kabul police, on Saturday.
Stanikzai said the tankers belonged to private companies and “no one can come close to them since the fire is still raging at the scene.”
Gul Aghan Hashimi, the Crime Investigation Director of Kabul police, said that “it was a magnetic bomb that caused the fuel tankers to catch fire.” However, Stanikzai said that police were still investigating the cause of the fire. Stanikzai also said that no casualties have yet to be reported, though he fears the worst.
Early on Saturday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a statement claiming responsibility for the incident. “Our brave Mujahideen fighters in a special tactic have set ablaze hundreds of fuel tankers in the west of Kabul, which were supplying fuel and food for foreign forces,” he said.
However, it was unclear if the trucks were supplying fuel and resources to NATO.
As NATO forces prepare to withdraw all of their troops by December 2014, Taliban forces have stepped up their attacks in recent months.
On Thursday, Taliban militants shot rockets in the Kabul airport, destroying the Afghan president’s helicopter and damaging other aircraft.
One day before, eight military officers were killed on a bus which was attacked by a suicide bomber.
Should NATO remove all of its forces by December, this would leave only 10,000 US troops in Afghanistan, a number which itself is contingent on the Afghani president signing a new security deal with Washington.
