A gruesome video of a Kabul blast site, showing bloodied children standing over an unconscious woman, quickly went viral and sparked fresh outrage in war-weary Afghanistan.
At least two people died and five others were wounded in the explosion on Sunday, which appeared to target security forces in the Afghan capital, Kabul police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz said.
The video, taken in the immediate aftermath, showed bodies bloodied and blackened lying on the asphalt, while two small children can be seen crying over an unconscious woman.
The two children – one of them covered in blood – can be heard screaming. At one point, one says, "Mother, get up!"
The man filming the video can be heard telling the children to "calm down" as the woman is carried away.
Reaction to the video was immediate, with social media users in Afghanistan expressing horror over the images. The hashtag "Mother get up!" in the Dari language quickly started trending.
"Unbearable to watch this mother & her children like this," wrote one Twitter user, Ejaz Malikzada.
"How could those who commit this justifies their action to their own souls while you see kids crying for their injured mother? This needs to STOP," said Fawzia Koofi, a member of the government's peace team negotiating with the Taliban.
Kabul police said the two children were treated for light injuries while the woman in the video was seriously wounded.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but Afghan security forces are regularly targeted by the Taliban.
The Taliban denied any involvement.
Kabul, along with urban areas across Afghanistan, have been rocked by frequent explosions on an almost daily basis amid the fraught peace talks between the government and the Taliban.
The surge in violence has led US President Joe Biden's administration to launch a review of a deal signed between Washington and the Taliban last year.
That agreement paved the way for the withdrawal of all US troops in the coming months and kickstarted the peace talks between the Kabul government and the insurgents.
Mr Biden is reviewing whether to stick to a looming May 1 deadline to withdraw the remaining 2,500 US troops or risk a bloody backlash from the insurgents by staying.
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Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
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The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
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Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
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WHAT ARE NFTs?
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are tokens that represent ownership of unique items. They allow the tokenisation of things such as art, collectibles and even real estate.
An NFT can have only one official owner at one time. And since they're minted and secured on the Ethereum blockchain, no one can modify the record of ownership, not even copy-paste it into a new one.
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How to protect yourself when air quality drops
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Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
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Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
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- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
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