German killed in Kabul attack on play condemning suicide bombings
A teenaged bomber on Thursday targeted a Kabul auditorium packed with people watching a drama condemning suicide attacks and being staged at a French cultural center, killing a German man and wounding 16 people, officials and a witness said.
The suicide blast was the second to strike the Afghan capital in a day, after six Afghan soldiers were killed when their bus was hit on the outskirts of the city as they rode into work.
The violence, part of a nationwide campaign by Islamist Taliban insurgents to strike at military and civilian targets, came less than three weeks before the year-end deadline for most foreign combat soldiers to withdraw from the country.
General Ayoub Salangi, head of the Interior Ministry while the cabinet is being finalized, said the suspected theater bomber appeared to have been about 17 years old and detonated his explosives at the venue during an early evening performance.
