A suicide bomber on foot ripped through a crowd of Afghan Supreme Court employees on Tuesday, killing at least 21 people including nine women and wounding 41 others in the second attack on government institutions in under a month.
The assailant detonated the device in the parking lot as employees were boarding a bus to go home, leaving bodies and dismembered limbs scattered around the area, with women and children among the casualties.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the blast in the snow-laden Afghan capital, but it occurred as the Taliban are ramping up their nationwide insurgency even in the peak winter months when fighting usually abates.