According to a press release signed by Mr. Guterres’ spokesman, Farhan Haq, this attack “claimed the lives of at least 19 civilians” and injured several others.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, “strongly condemned” the attack that was committed yesterday Friday at a cricket stadium in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, where a match of the local league was in progress.
According to a press release signed by Mr. Guterres’ spokesman, Farhan Haq, this attack “claimed the lives of at least 19 civilians” and injured several others.
The UN Secretary-General “expresses his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and wishes a speedy recovery to the injured”, while “reiterating that attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure are strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law”.
However, a police spokesman in the Afghan capital and an official of the Afghan cricket federation said only “four people were injured” in yesterday’s grenade attack on spectators at the match, adding that the match resumed a short time later.
Several hundred people were at the stadium to watch the cricket match – a sport extremely popular in the south-east Asian country – after the league resumed around ten days ago, for the first time since the Taliban seized power almost a year ago. .
According to Naseeb Khan, an executive of the federation, “players, staff members and foreigners are all safe.”
Since the Taliban took control of Kabul as the previous government collapsed on August 15, 2021, violence has been relatively subdued in Afghanistan, but the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group has carried out several deadly attacks in recent months.
RES-EMP
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