Thousands of Afghan men rushed through the streets of Kabul on Sunday carrying knives and shooting small arms into the air, a demonstration that turned deadly when an unidentified suicide bomber drove a motorcycle into a crowd in the center of the city and detonated a bomb. The attack killed at least seven and left another 24 wounded, according to a report from Agence France Presse.
The violence marked the 17th anniversary of the death of Ahmad Shah Massoud, a famous anti-Taliban military commander who was assassinated by al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan two days before the September 11 attacks in the U.S.
The indiscriminate gunfire also wounded more than a dozen residents of Kabul, according to an Afghan Public Health official speaking to the Washington Post.
In addition to the violence in Kabul, insurgents attacked Afghan government forces across the country throughout the weekend, leaving around 20 security force personnel dead and several more wounded. According to the Associated Press, the Taliban launched an attack against a district headquarters for Afghan security forces west of Kabul on Saturday. 10 of the security personnel at the base, including a high ranking chief, were killed.
According to AP, another attack on the same day in Herat province near the Afghanistan-Iran border resulted in the death of nine Afghan police officers, said Gelani Farhad, the provincial governor’s spokesman. Farhad blamed the Taliban, but the group has yet to take responsibility.