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Tuesday 24 July 2018

What is Santa doing in a black box in Denmark in July - can the flames already be spreading that far north? #BombAttack #AbdulRashidDostum #Kabul #Afghanistan | Keats, late 1820: Percipience

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epa editor's choice 23 July 2018: People bury a victim of a suicide bomb attack that targeted the convoy of exiled Afghan vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum, in Kabul, Afghanistan, 23 July 2018. At least ten people were killed and more than a dozen injured in the suicide attack on 22 July near the Kabul airport, just minutes after a plane carrying the former vice president, who had just returned from exile in Turkey, landed, police said. #SuicideAttack #SuicideBomb #BombAttack #AbdulRashidDostum #Kabul #Afghanistan #epaphotos Photo epa-efe Hedaytullah Amid: image via eraphotos @epaphotos, 23 July 2018  



#Afghanistan Kabul suicide attack death toll rises to 23 Photo @Noorullah700 #AFP: image via AFP Photo @AFPphoto, 23 July 2018

Afghan airport blast: VP Dostum unhurt as Kabul bomb kills 14: BBC News, 23 July 2018

Fourteen people have died in a blast which rocked Kabul airport shortly after Afghan Vice-President Abdul Rashid Dostum returned from self-imposed exile, according to police.

Gen Dostum was unhurt in the attack on a square he had just passed through.

He left for Turkey more than a year ago, after he was accused of ordering his men to kidnap and rape a political rival - accusations he denies.

Militant group Islamic State has said it carried out the attack.

Hashmat Estankzai, of Kabul police, said nine security forces members and traffic officers were among the 14 who had died, while another 60 people had been injured, according to news agency AFP.

An AFP reporter later tweeted that a driver for the agency, Akhtar Mohammad, was also killed.

   
We lost another great colleague today. Akhtar Mohammad, a long time AFP driver, a calm and honest man, a true and great friend was killed in the suicide attack in Kabul today. Rest In Peace Brother.: image via Usman Sharifi @usharifi, 22 July 2018
 
Mr Estankzai told the BBC a suicide attacker on foot had set off his explosives outside the gate of the airport.

Some reports said Gen Dostum's convoy was departing as the blast was heard. He was in an armoured vehicle.

The ethnic Uzbek and former warlord had been cheered by supporters on arrival. 

Television footage showed Gen Dostum greeting supporters at his office not long after the explosion.

Members of Afghan security forces arrive as an injured man sits on the ground at the site of a blast in Kabul.

Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum narrowly escaped a suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport as he returned home from more than a year in exile.: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 23 July 2018

Gen Dostum's reappearance was preceded by unrest in his powerbase in northern Afghanistan, as supporters demanded his return and the release of a militia leader.

Analysts believe President Ashraf Ghani sanctioned the return of Gen Dostum to try to shore up support ahead of the presidential election next year.

Gen Dostum helped the US oust the Taliban in 2001 but has been blamed for some of the worst atrocities in the country's long-running civil war.

He joined its national unity government in 2014.

Ahmad Eshchi, a former ally, said he had suffered days of severe beatings and sexual abuse at Gen Dostum's command.

Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum arrives at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum narrowly escaped a suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport as he returned home from more than a year in exile.: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 23 July 2018
 
He said the vice-president and 10 other men assaulted him while he was forcibly kept at Gen Dostum's residence in November 2016.

The ex-warlord denies the claims and has said that Mr Eshchi was detained by Afghanistan's intelligence service.

Gen Dostum's spokesman said he went to Turkey simply for a medical check-up.

People watch a wildfire burning in the town of Rafina
 
People watch a wildfire burning in the town of Rafina, as forest fires rage uncontrolled in several places across Greece.: Photo @alkiskon: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 23 July 2018

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