KABUL, Afghanistan: The bodies of three Spanish tourists and three Afghans shot dead while visiting a market in Afghanistan have been flown to the capital, where many wounded have also been treated, the Taliban government said on Saturday.
The group was fired on while shopping in a bazaar in the mountainous city of Bamiyan, about 180 kilometers (110 miles) from the capital, Kabul on Friday.
Anne-France Brill was one of a dozen foreign travelers on the organized tour who escaped unharmed. She described the terrifying seconds when a gunman on foot approached the group’s vehicles and opened fire.
“There was blood everywhere,” she told media from Dubai, where she landed on Saturday after being evacuated from Kabul.
“One thing is certain,” she said, the assailant “was there for the foreigners”.
The attack is said to be the first fatal attack on foreign tourists in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
Taliban authorities said the bodies of the dead and wounded were flown to Kabul on Friday night.
They were evacuated by road from Bamiyan as bad weather prevented airlift, diplomatic sources said.
The Italian NGO Emergency, which runs a hospital in Kabul, has received wounded from Spain, Lithuania, Norway, Australia and Afghanistan.
The bodies of the dead are likely to be brought back to Spain on Sunday, according to the country’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, speaking on Spanish public broadcaster TVE.
Spanish diplomats were heading to Afghanistan from Pakistan and Qatar, where the Spanish ambassador to the country is currently based, to facilitate the repatriation of the dead and the transport of the wounded, the foreign ministry said.
The Spanish embassy was evacuated along with other Western missions in 2021 after the Taliban retook control of Kabul, ending a decades-long bloody insurgency against foreign forces.
The Spanish authorities also coordinated with the European Union delegation in the capital.
Interior Ministry spokesman Qani said seven suspects had been arrested, “one of whom is injured”.
“The investigation is still ongoing and the Islamic Emirate is taking the matter seriously,” he added.
There has been no admission of responsibility yet. The EU condemned the attack “in the strongest terms”.
Bamiyan is Afghanistan’s top tourist destination, once home to giant Buddha statues that were blown up by the Taliban in 2001 during their previous rule.
The number of bombings and suicide attacks in Afghanistan has fallen dramatically since the Taliban took power, and fatal attacks on foreigners are rare.
However, a number of armed groups, including the Islamic State group, remain a threat.
The jihadist group has waged a campaign of attacks on foreign interests in an attempt to weaken the Taliban government, targeting the Pakistani and Russian embassies as well as Chinese businessmen.
