Zeynep AzizA suicide bomber driving an ambulance packed with explosives attacked a heavily guarded area of central Kabul on 27 January 2018, killing more than one hundred people and wounding at least 235.
The attacker used the emergency vehicle to pass through a checkpoint and detonated near government offices, hospitals and foreign missions. The Taliban claimed responsibility. The use of an ambulance added a grave element of deception, undermining trust in vehicles protected by humanitarian purpose.
The bombing struck a city already shaken by repeated attacks. One week earlier, militants had assaulted Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel, and an Islamic State attack targeted the Save the Children office in Jalalabad days later. The sequence intensified public anger over the government’s ability to protect civilians.
Hospitals struggled with the scale of casualties as families searched for relatives. Afghan and international officials condemned the attack, while the deaths renewed questions about insurgent access to secured parts of the capital and the human cost of the long conflict.
The ambulance bombing became one of Kabul’s deadliest attacks in years. Beyond the immediate casualties, it illustrated how attacks on crowded civilian spaces and misuse of protected symbols deepen fear and weaken the systems people depend on during emergencies.
