Suicide Attack in Kabul Same Day as President Obama Visit

An early morning suicide attack on Wednesday killed at least seven people in the Afghan capital of Kabul. The attack occurred just hours after a surprise visit to Afghanistan by U.S. President Barack Obama.

The attack began with a suicide car bomb near the gate of a privately guarded compound next to one of the main roads out of the city. The blast killed four people who were passing by in a station wagon as well as a security guard and a passerby near the compound. After the explosion, two attackers disguised as women went into the compound, which houses hundreds of international workers. They pulled out weapons and started shooting.

nato spokesman Gen. Carsten Jacobson reported, “What we know so far is that we had an attack of a small group of insurgents in the east of Kabul in a compound where a lot of civilian workers work and live. Fortunately isaf did not suffer any fatalities, but we have civilian casualties in this incident and, particularly sad, we have seen civilian children being wounded.”

Initial reports are that 17 people are wounded, many of them Afghan children on their way to school.

The attack came shortly after President Obama visited to mark Wednesday’s anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden in neighboring Pakistan. The president arrived at Bagram Air Field late on Tuesday, then helicoptered to Kabul to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The two leaders signed an agreement governing the U.S. presence after combat troops withdraw in 2014.

Afterward, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, President Obama delivered a televised speech to the troops at Bagram. The president said the agreement paves the way for a “future of peace” while allowing the United States to “wind down this war.”

Approximately 90 minutes later, the suicide car bomb went off.

This violence is a stark demonstration of how hopeless such a “future of peace” will be. After nearly a decade of war, the United States has been unable to defeat the Taliban outright or stabilize the nation. Though the president is trying to paint 2012 Afghanistan as a victory, it is clearly a defeat and retreat.

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry forecast that America’s war efforts would fail for a very specific reason. To learn more, read his 2003 article: “Why We Cannot Win the War Against Terrorism.”