The incumbent Ambassador of Afghanistan to Tajikistan, Mr. Abdul Ghafoor Arzou, is in Dushanbe and information that he was allegedly wounded in the Taliban attack on Germany’s consulate in the Afghan northern city of Mazar-e Sharif does not correspond to the facts, an official source at the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe told Asia-Plus Friday afternoon.
Tajik news website Ozodagon supposes that not the incumbent but the newly appointed Afghan ambassador to Tajikistan could be wounded the Taliban attack in Mazar-e Sharif.
Ozodagon reports that Mr. Abdul Ghafoor Arzou will head the Afghan diplomatic mission in Dushanbe until the end of November and Mohammad Gul Zalmai Yunusi is expected to replace him in a month.
Citing Pajhwok Afghan News, Russian news agency RIA Novosti earlier reported that Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Tajikistan was among the people wounded in two blasts that hit the German consulate in Mazar-e Sharif.
Meanwhile, The Telegraph reports the death toll from a powerful Taliban truck bombing at the German consulate in Mazar-e Sharif city rose to at least six Friday, with more than 100 others wounded in a major militant assault.
The explosion, followed by sporadic gunfire, reverberated across the usually tranquil northern city, smashing windows of nearby shops and leaving terrified local residents fleeing for cover.
"The suicide attacker rammed his explosives-laden car into the wall of the German consulate," local police chief Sayed Kamal Sadat told AFP.
A spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry said on November 11 that all of its two dozen staff escaped the attack “safe and uninjured” and were evacuated, while Afghan security forces and NATO special forces had “repulsed the heavily armed attackers.”
But seven Afghan civilians were killed, including two motorcyclists who were shot dead by German forces close to the consulate after they refused to heed their warning to stop, deputy police chief Abdul Razaq Qadri was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.
Local doctor Noor Mohammad Fayez said the city hospitals received six dead bodies, including two killed by bullets.
At least 128 others were wounded, some of them critically and many with shrapnel injuries, he added.
The Taliban issued a statement saying the attack was retaliation for US air strikes this month in the volatile province of Kunduz that left 32 civilians dead.
US forces conceded last week that their air strikes “very likely” resulted in civilian casualties in Kunduz, pledging a full investigation into the incident.
