KABUL, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- The UN office in Afghanistan UNAMA and NATO have joined Afghans in condemning a bomb attack on Iraq embassy in Kabul on Monday, which the hardliner Islamic State (IS) group has claimed of responsibility.
"This is yet another attack that appears to have targeted the international community, but in which Afghan civilians bore the brunt of the violence and this attack shows complete contempt for human life, as well as the international law designed to protect diplomats," said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA.
"Diplomatic missions are civilian objects protected under international humanitarian law, and attacks directed at them are serious violations that may amount to war crimes," said the UN top diplomat in Afghanistan.
A terrorist attack on the Iraqi embassy in downtown Kabul killed two civilian employees of the embassy and four attackers were also killed in ensuing gunfight, which lasted for more than three hours.
Afghans from all walks of life, including president Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and his foreign minister Salahudin Rabbani, have condemned the attack in the strongest term.
NATO senior civilian representative in Afghanistan Cornelius Zimmermann has also denounced the attack.
"I offer my heartfelt sympathies to all those affected and my solidarity to the entire team of the Iraqi Embassy in these difficult moments, and I commend the Afghan security forces for their swift and decisive action in repelling this attack," the NATO ambassador said in a statement.
Meantime, Afghan analyst Dad Mohammad Anabi opined that the IS attack could be a reaction of the armed group's defeat in Iraq and particularly the fall of IS self-claimed caliphate capital Mosul to Iraqi troops recently.
