08:29 – Attack against Dostum in Kabul: 23 dead, including one AFP collaborator, and 107 wounded

The suicide bombing of General Abdul Rashid Dostum, warlord and vice-president of exile, on Sunday in Kabul, left at least 23 dead and 107 wounded, according to a new report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"This badessment could still evolve," spokesman Najib Danish said on Monday.

The attack was claimed by the jihadists of the Islamic State group.

Among the victims, the AFP office in Kabul mourns one of his collaborators, the driver Mohammad Akhtar, 31 years old, father of four children including a baby of some months.

Employee of the Agency since 2007, he is the second collaborator of AFP killed in an attack in less than three months after death, on April 30, of the chief of photo, Shah Marai, also struck by a suicide attack.

The suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a dense crowd waiting for Jowzjan's strong man back from a year of exile in Turkey, the exit of Kabul International Airport: but the convoy of armored cars had just pbaded and General Dostum and his suite are unscathed.

Kabul Police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai said on Sunday that nine members of the security forces were mown by the high-powered explosion, which spread innumerable pieces of metal around.

Accused of raping a rival late 2016, Dostum had left Afghanistan for Ankara in May 2017 , officially for health reasons.

Returned aboard a plane chartered by the Afghan government, he was greeted as a hero by a delegation of officials and dozens of supporters.

Uzbek ethnic group, about sixty years old Dostum has been collecting war crimes and the worst abuses for decades – like the death of 2,000 Taliban prisoners in containers. He must resume his duties as vice-president.

In the run-up to the October parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for 2019, President Ashraf Ghani seeks to restore calm in the North, the stronghold of Dostum, threatened by Taliban and IS attacks