Attack in Mazar-e Sharif in 2016

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The 2016 attack in Mazar-e-Sharif was an explosives attack by the Taliban on the German consulate general in Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan on November 10, 2016. At least six people died. At least 128 people, including 19 women and 38 children, were injured. According to the Taliban, the attacks were a reaction to the bombing of the MSF clinic in Kunduz in October 2015.

procedure

Thursday November 10, 2016

On the evening of November 10, 2016, a suicide bomber attacked the premises of the German Consulate General in Mazar-e Sharif with a truck. He drove the truck loaded with explosives in front of the wall and the gate of the consulate, where the vehicle exploded around 11:10 p.m. local time. At least five people died immediately and 120 were injured, according to a local hospital. After the explosion, the consulate general was attacked by heavily armed terrorists, according to reports from the Afghan authorities. The attackers could only be repulsed after lengthy exchanges of fire and fighting in the building and on the premises of the Consulate General. Our own security personnel, Afghan security forces and special forces from the Resolute Support mission from Belgium, Germany, Georgia and Latvia were involved in the defense. The consulate building was badly damaged in the attack.

As the Bild reported on Sunday on November 20, 2016, it became known from diplomatic circles that far more German Bundeswehr soldiers were involved in the rescue and return operation than previously known. Accordingly, shortly after the truck detonation, German combat rescuers from the Air Force and soldiers from the Special Forces Command ( KSK ) were on site at the Consulate General. The German units were the first to make it to the trapped diplomats. While the combat rescuers protected and secured the diplomats, the KSK soldiers searched the building. Subsequently, as reported by Bild am Sonntag, the entire group, supported by American combat helicopters and a surveillance drone ( Mikado ) from the Bundeswehr , worked its way outside. For the combat rescuers, this was the first rescue operation of this kind.

Friday 11th November 2016

According to police chief Saied Sadat, a second assassin was arrested on November 11, 2016 at around 6:00 a.m. It is still unclear how many Taliban fighters were involved in the attack.

Another incident occurred on the morning of November 11, 2016 at around 6:10 a.m. local time. Three motorcyclists approached the German Consulate General at high speed. Despite signal ammunition and warning shots, these did not slow down, whereupon soldiers of the Bundeswehr opened fire. All three attackers were wounded, two of them fatal.

background

The Taliban took over through its spokesman Sabiullah Mujahid responsibility for the attack and justified it as a retaliation to Germany. According to the Taliban spokesman, Germany is complicit in a US attack during the Battle of Kunduz , where 30 people were killed in the bombing of the Doctors Without Borders clinic in Kunduz on October 3, 2015 .

Even after the suicide attack on Saturday morning, the radical Islamist Taliban confessed to the attack. Taliban spokesman Sabihullah Madschahid said it was a suicide attack in response to the bombing of the MSF clinic in Kunduz.

Reactions

Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier condemned the attack in the strictest terms and announced the consequences. The extent to which this will affect the further German involvement in Mazar-e Sharif is to be discussed in a committee. At the same time, a crisis team was convened in the Foreign Office.

The refugee organization Pro Asyl called for the deportation of asylum seekers to Afghanistan to be stopped; the country is not safe.

consequences

On November 25, it became known that the Foreign Office was relocating the Consulate General to the Bundeswehr's Camp Marmal outside the city. The building of the consulate general had been so badly destroyed during the bomb attack and the fighting that followed that it was pointless to repair it. In addition, the building on a busy street in downtown Mazar-i-Sharif cannot be effectively protected. Immediately after the attack, the employees of the consulate general started work at Camp Marmal. During interrogation of the only surviving attacker, he testified that the truck loaded with explosives was smuggled through several checkpoints around the city with the help of a small bribe .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Taliban attack German consulate general in Afghanistan. Handelsblatt , November 11, 2016, accessed on November 12, 2016 .
  2. ^ Steinmeier condemns the attack on the German consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. November 11, 2016. Retrieved November 12, 2016 .
  3. ^ Mazar-i-Sharif: Taliban attack German consulate in Afghanistan . In: The time . November 11, 2016, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed November 11, 2016]).
  4. ↑ a b Steinmeier - Six dead in attack on German consulate. In: reuters.com. Reuters , November 11, 2016, accessed November 11, 2016 .
  5. ↑ a b Afghanistan: Attack on the German Consulate General in Mazar-i Sharif and deployment of German soldiers , BMVg press and information staff, November 11, 2016.
  6. ↑ Here they catch the consulate bomber . Axel Springer SE. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
  7. ^ Mazar-i-Sharif: Taliban attack German consulate in Afghanistan . In: The time . November 11, 2016, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed November 11, 2016]).
  8. ↑ Afghanistan: Bundeswehr shoots two motorcyclists after attack - WELT. In: THE WORLD. Retrieved November 11, 2016 .
  9. ^ Taliban profess to attack the German consulate. In: faz.net. FAZ, November 11, 2016, accessed on November 11, 2016 .
  10. ^ SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg Germany: Reason for attack on consulate: Taliban blame Germany for US air strike. In: SPIEGEL ONLINE. Retrieved November 11, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Aghanistan: Death toll from the MSF hospital in Kunduz attack rising still. In: Médecins Sans Frontières International. October 23, 2015, accessed November 3, 2015 .
  12. ↑ Sascha Pommrenke: The (second) massacre of Kunduz. In: Telepolis. November 2, 2015, accessed November 3, 2015 .
  13. ^ Bundeswehr shoots two motorcyclists after attack , WeltN24, November 11, 2016.
  14. ↑ Germany gives Consulate General in Mazar-i-Sharif on RP Online from November 25, 2016